Multisim
National Instrument’s Multisim (Figure 6-1) is an electronic schematic capture and simulation program that is part of a suite of electronic circuit design programs. Multisim uses the original Berkeley SPICE–based soft- ware simulation. It includes a microcontroller simula- tion as well as integrated import and export features to the printed circuit board layout software Ultiboard.
Multisim is widely used in education and indus- try to provide education on circuit design, electronic schematic design, and SPICE simulation. National Instruments (NI) has maintained this educational component, with a specific version of Multisim that includes features developed for teaching electronics.
Multisim includes a number of measurement instruments that can be used to interactively measure the behavior of circuits. It provides several virtual instruments for taking circuit measurements, including these:
● Analog and digital multimeters
● Bode plotter
● Logic analyzer
● Oscilloscope
● Signal generator
● Wattmeter
These instruments behave like their real-world equivalents to set, use, and read the simulated measurements. Using measurement instruments provides an easy way to examine a circuit’s behavior through simulated results.
Multisim provides the user with the tools to analyze circuit behavior. The intuitive and easy-to-use software platform combines schematic capture and industry- standard SPICE simulation into a single integrated environment. Multisim abstracts the complexities and difficulties of traditional syntax-based simulation, so users no longer have to be an expert in SPICE to simulate and analyze circuits. Multisim is available in an educational version and a professional version.
Educators use Multisim to guide learning and exploration of circuit behavior by using what–if experiments and simulation-driven instruments. Multisim and industry-standard LabVIEW measurement software by National Instrument (NI) were com- bined with the NI elViS, a prototyping workstation, to form a complete development platform. labView (Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Engineering Workbench) is a design and development system using a visual programming language from National Instruments. Multisim and NI Ultiboard combine powerful SPICE simulation and analysis with flexible layout tools to quickly and professionally complete a wide variety of PCB designs.
Electronic engineers and researchers use Multi- sim for schematic capture, SPICE simulation, and circuit design. Multisim is used to identify errors, confirm circuit designs, and build faster prototypes. Schematics are then transferred to NI ultiboard lay- out to prototype completed PCBs. Ultiboard enables engineers to integrate design and test with a single, unified software platform that includes NI Multisim and NI LabVIEW. Design engineers can now easily compare simulated and real-world measurements to benchmark performance, resulting in fewer design problems.
Questions
1. What is Multisim?
2. What is the basis of Multisim?
3. What is the function of the measurement instru- ments in Multisim?
4. What is the difference between Multisim education version and the Multisim’s professional version?
5. What is the function of Ultiboard?