MacSim - Alpha 4 now available

Welcome to MacSim - the AVR simulator for OS X! With MacSim you can load a hex file into a simulated generic AVR and watch your code execute. Step through the code one instruction at a time or set it to auto step and adjust the speed from slow to fast. Set code breakpoints to stop the processor and examine the AVR registers, I/O ports and ram.

After a much longer break than expected I have restarted development. I have actually spent a fair a bit of time on it however most of the improvements for this release are internal - and they don't even show ( yet ). The interface code has been completely rewritten with lots of - not quite ready yet - goodies coming up. Eventually you will be able to extensively reconfigure the window layout to suit your work style. However because this is taking a bit longer than planned and the old version has stopped working I have decided to concentrate more on improving the simulator so that it actually becomes useful.

What's new in this release

  • A number of instruction bugs have been fixed. These are mainly the immediate mode instructions sub, sbci etc. Also sbic and movw.
  • Extra inspector panels can be shown via the Inspect Menu.
  • Change of name from MacSimAVR to MacSim to prevent any potential legal hassles with Atmel, the makers of the AVR.
  • Each panel can be changed to another type via a contextual menu. You can have several panels of the same type
  • Global breakpoints button to enable or disable all breakpoints.
  • There is no expiry on the app.

IMPORTANT: This release of MacSim is still limited in a number of ways. There are currently no timers, interrupts, or EEPROM. The processor is 'generic' and has fixed size data and instruction memories. There are also a small number of instructions missing and a few of the implemented instructions will be buggy. Some other things missing are: no saving, so breakpoints and so on are lost between sessions; no way to change the contents of ram; and a lack of menus that do anything. However, the enclosed examples 'work' well and other small programs will probably also work as expected.

BUGS: There will be many though the application is quite stable - it probably isn't worth sending in bug reports just yet as a lot of the code is being continously modified. Suggestions are welcome though!

To Do and Suggestions

This link lists a few of the features that I hope to add to MacSim over the life of the project.

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MacSim Alpha 4

MacSim Alpha 4 should be considered 'alpha' quality software.

MacSim requires OS X 10.6 and and an Intel mac to run. It will most likely also work on 10.5 but has not been tested.

Download (1.3MB — Intel Only Binary)

MacSim is currently free. It is very much a work in progress and several updates ( at least ) should be forthcoming. At some point there will be a small charge made for the software. You can also help by making a donation now. See sidebar for a special offer.