uCsim is a micro-controller simulator. It is extensible to support different micro-controller families. Currently it supports Intel MCS51 family, 8080, 8085, XA, Z80, Rabbit, SM83, TLCS90, ST7, STM8, PDK, MC6800, M68HC08, MC6809, M68HC11, M68HC12, MOS6502, PicoBlaze, F8, p1516/p2223 and some AVR processors.
uCsim is distributed in source code under GPL. It can be downloaded from its home sites:
- Main site: http://www.ucsim.hu
- Latest release: https://github.com/danieldrotos/ucsim/releases/latest
- Archive of older releases: http://mazsola.iit.uni-miskolc.hu/ucsim/archive
uCsim is included in sdcc, free C compiler of Sandeep Dutta. It is a complete development package with debugger (see below). It can be downloaded from its home site (or from its mirrors):
- g++
- make (GNU make is required)
- bison
- flex
- libncurses-dev
Download source package and unzip it. Go to root directory of the unzipped package and the issue following commands:
./configure
make
sudo make install
If GNU make is different from system's default make, you can try gmake command, instead of make.
There is no mailing list which is specifically opened for uCsim. Announcements are sent to sdcc's mailing list. See sdcc's main page at above URL for subscribing information and the archive. Ideas, bug reports or fixes should be sent to sdcc's list too.
Features of uCsim are similar to features of other simulators. It simulates instructions of the program code and all parts of the microcontroller including timer/counters, uart, etc. Peripherals are simulated as accurate as possible. Time resolution is machine cycle based which means that 1 machine cycle is the smallest time quantity which is handled by the simulator.
uCsim has some features which may not available in other simulators. They include:
-
No GUI. It is not the simulator's job to do graphical representation of the CPU. It should be done by external programs. uCsim tries to help GUI and other external tool writers. In addition, the program contains some simple textual interactive interfaces for generating input data, e.g. for GPIO.
-
More than one command console. It is possible to use as many command interpreters as many needed. uCsim accepts commands from command consoles simultaneously. It makes possible to give commands to the simulator during execution of the simulated program.
-
Simulating UART of the controller makes it possible to connect two instances of the simulator together via simulated serial lines. It is also possible to connect simulated UART to serial port of the host machine. Built-in terminal emulator can be used to simulate interactive applications.
-
Profiling support. uCsim provides "virtual timers" to measure execution time of any part of the code. It also makes statistic about ratio of main program and interrupt services.
-
Event breakpoints. Simulator can stop the execution when read or write event occurs at any location of any kind of memory.
uCsim is not well supported (yet) by external tools. But some exists already.
** SerialView **
It is written by Timothy Hurman <ee62th@ee.surrey.ac.uk> and it is
now included in the uCsim package. It is simple "terminal
emulator" which can be used to provide input for the simulated
UART as well as present the output of the UART.
** sdcdb **
Debugger of the free C compiler, called sdcc written by Sandeep
Dutta <sandeep.dutta@usa.net>. It is a usual debugger with command
line interface which uses uCsim in background to run the
code. "Standard" interface of the sdcdb makes it possible to use
any debugger GUI such as ddd to make it comfortable.
Gunnar Holm <gunnarh@foa.nft.no>,
Sandeep Dutta <dutta@comm.mot.com>,
Salvador Eduardo Tropea <salvador@inti.gov.ar>,
Josef Wolf <jw@raven.inka.de>,
Stephane MEYER <smeyer@cea.fr>,
Larry Doolittle <LRDoolittle@lbl.gov>,
Timothy Hurman <ee62th@ee.surrey.ac.uk>,
Karl-Max Wagner <karlmax@oberland.net>,
Edmar Wienskoski Jr <edmar-w-jr@technologist.com>,
Alexandre Frey <Alexandre.Frey@trusted-logic.fr>,
Kaido Karner <kaido@tradenet.ee>,
Karl Bongers <karl@turbobit.com>,
Alexis Pavlov <alexis.pavlov@certess.com>,
Davide Zanni <davide.zanni@libero.it>,
Anton Persson <anton@omicron.se>,
Nicolas Lesser,
Mike Jagdis,
Jiri Simek,
Zbynek Krivka <krivka@fit.vutbr.cz>,
Vaclav Peroutka <vaclavpe@users.sourceforge.net>,
Valentin Dudouyt <valentin.dudouyt@gmail.com>,
Erik Petrich <epetrich@users.sourceforge.net>,
Leland Morrison,
Johan Knol <johan.knol@iduna.nl>,
Maintainer of serialview: Timothy Hurman <ee62th@ee.surrey.ac.uk>,
Maintainer of other parts: Daniel Drotos <dr.dkdb@gmail.com>