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Vit.Gallo , 02-18-2023, 12:09 PM

Hello everyone,
I am new in this forum and I hope to make a contribution.​

Into the web you can find information about Proteus software for the
simulation of firmware in schematics. Virtual System Modelling combines SPICE mixed-mode simulation with fast simulation of world-leading microcontrollers on schematics.

Can this be achieved with Altium? Is there such a thing? How?

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robertferanec , 02-20-2023, 01:32 AM

No, Altium can't do microcontroller simulations. Why would you need this?

PS: Normally I just buy a development board and build hardware and software around them.

Vit.Gallo , 02-20-2023, 01:41 AM

I want to realize board "pre-production" simulation.
Are there other possibilities?

qdrives , 02-20-2023, 04:01 PM

What is the purpose of the simulation:
1) To test the circuit?
2) To test the (application) software?
3) To test the peripherals?

I would say most mistakes with a microcontroller is not properly connecting the pin to the peripheral functions.
This can often be checked with tools from the (MCU) manufacturer.
There are already limitations/bugs in those software tools, so I would not trust a third party to be reliable enough.

For points 1 you can use any SPICE simulation and for points 2 and 3, like @robertferanec already mentioned, there are development boards.
For point 2 you could run C code on your desktop and check that it 'works' that way.

All said, there is no test like on the actual hardware.

Vit.Gallo , 02-20-2023, 04:06 PM

Ok, thanks for the support

robertferanec , 02-21-2023, 05:47 AM

As @qdrives pointed out, simulations are not perfect. I would not spend time trying to simulate a microcontroller - you will get much better results using development boards. Often development boards of microcontrollers are not expensive.