eolas/Computer_Architecture/Hardware_simulation.md

---
categories:
  - Computer Architecture
  - Hardware
tags: [HDL, nand-to-tetris]
---

# Hardware simulation

In order to test our [HDL](/Computer_Architecture/Hardware_Description_Language.md) files we load them into the hardware simulator program shown below:

There are several simulation options:

- interactive
- script-based (where we load a test script into the simulator along with the HDL file
- comparative (running the HDL program against our intended output specified in the `.out` file)

The image below shows a basic interactive usage of the simulator. We have uploaded the `Xor.hdl` file into the simulator and changed the input pins to `a=1, b=0` and clicked the calculator icon. This then shows the output and internal pin values for these inputs.

<img src="/home/thomas/repos/computer_science/_img/hardware-sim-basic.png" >
Autosave: 2022-12-29 12:00:12 2022-12-29 12:00:12 +00:00			`---`
			`categories:`
			`- Computer Architecture`
			`- Hardware`
			`tags: [HDL, nand-to-tetris]`
			`---`

			`# Hardware simulation`
Autosave: 2022-12-31 12:00:05 2022-12-31 12:00:05 +00:00
			`In order to test our [HDL](/Computer_Architecture/Hardware_Description_Language.md) files we load them into the hardware simulator program shown below:`

			`There are several simulation options:`

			`- interactive`
			`- script-based (where we load a test script into the simulator along with the HDL file`
			- comparative (running the HDL program against our intended output specified in the `.out` file)
Autosave: 2022-12-31 12:30:04 2022-12-31 12:30:04 +00:00
			The image below shows a basic interactive usage of the simulator. We have uploaded the `Xor.hdl` file into the simulator and changed the input pins to `a=1, b=0` and clicked the calculator icon. This then shows the output and internal pin values for these inputs.

			`<img src="/home/thomas/repos/computer_science/_img/hardware-sim-basic.png" >`