Pre-release: Chip Hippo is still in active development. Expect rough edges — user discretion is advised.
v1.5.0 — Now Available

Build 74xx & CD4000 logic
on virtual breadboards

Chip Hippo is a desktop playground for TTL and CMOS circuits. Drop 74LS and CD4000 chips onto an infinite desktop, wire them up, hit Run — and watch electricity ripple through every net until it settles. LEDs light, counters count, magic smoke. All offline.

Download Free Mac App Store View on GitHub

macOS · Windows · Linux  ·  Free & open source

The Z80A Hello World computer running in Chip Hippo: a Z80A CPU, an AT28C256 EEPROM and a W65C22 VIA across four stacked breadboards, their address and data buses auto-routed in neat board-aligned runs, clocked at 250 Hz from a 5 V supply, and a 16x2 character LCD reading Hello World. The CPU monitor on that Z80A, paused at a breakpoint on LD A,(HL) at $001E: the ROM in hex with the byte at the program counter in red, the flags, the instruction's machine cycle and T-state, the disassembled instructions around it, the registers with the ones the run changed lit, the stack, the breakpoint list and the I/O ports. Spice Lite running an LM7805 regulator under load: the 9 V supply reads 311 mA, the electronic load reads 5.00 V, 300 mA and 1.50 W, a 74LS04 lights an LED from the regulated rail, and a warning says the regulator is burning 1.27 W and wants a heatsink. A running Chip Hippo circuit built around DataLatch, a custom chip designed in Verilog: switches and a push button feed it over ribbon buses and an LED bar shows what it holds, clocked at 1 Hz from a 5 V supply. The logic analyzer below traces CLK, LOAD, D1, D2 and Q2. The Chip Designer window open on DataLatch: its 20-pin DIP package with every port mapped to a pin on the left, and its behaviour in Verilog on the right — on the falling edge of CLOCK, while Load is low, Q1 to Q8 capture D1 to D8. A Hamming-code circuit in the 3D view: stacked breadboards seen in perspective, with 74LS chips, LEDs, resistors and a DIP switch bank under arching jumper wires. The parts tray beside it lists the Capacitors, Inductors, Diodes and Transistors groups. A 74LS00 quad 2-input NAND bench: four slide switches labelled A to D feed the four gates through pull-down resistors, and the four outputs 1Y to 4Y drive LEDs, all on one breadboard from a 5 V supply.

Features

A real bench, without the wire mess

Everything you need to design a 74xx or CD4000 circuit — or a whole 8-bit computer — prove it out, and take it to a real breadboard or a circuit board. Fast, keyboard-friendly, and fully offline.

Infinite breadboard desk

An endlessly pannable, zoomable workspace. Drop Full 830, Half 400, and Tiny 170 boards — power rails and pin-boards snap together like the real thing. Hover any hole to light up its whole net and read what it carries.

Two simulation engines

The logic engine ripples every change through the circuit until it settles. Switch on Spice Lite and every wire carries a voltage: capacitors charge, LEDs dim, supplies sag under load, regulators run hot, and an overloaded part goes up in brown smoke.

8-bit computers & the CPU monitor

Wire a W65C02 or a Z80A to ROM, RAM, a VIA and an LCD, and run real machine code. The CPU monitor shows memory, registers, flags, the stack and the instruction in flight; set breakpoints, Step, Step Over, and edit bytes as it runs. Each CPU comes with a Hello World computer to open.

115 chips

53 74LS TTL and 46 CD4000 CMOS parts — gates, flip-flops, counters, decoders, muxes, shift registers, analog switches, display drivers, RC timers — plus memories, the 65xx family, the Z80A, the 555, an op-amp, a Darlington array and two optocouplers. Double-click any one for its datasheet pinout and function table.

Custom chips in Verilog

Design your own DIP part: lay out its pins, write its behaviour in Verilog, and drop it on the breadboard like any other chip. While the circuit runs, set breakpoints and step through your code statement by statement, watching every pin and signal.

Memory chips & inspector

SRAM, EPROM and EEPROM on wide DIP packages. Load a binary or Intel HEX image, edit it byte by byte in the hex/ASCII inspector, and the ROM travels inside your project file.

Clocks & logic analyzer

Clocks from 1 Hz to 1 kHz, square or PWM — and under Spice Lite a triangle, sawtooth or sine. Pin any net to the logic analyzer to watch it over time, voltages included, and export the capture as SVG or PNG.

Regulators, relays & discretes

LM7805–LM7815 and LM317 regulators, a 5 or 12 V relay, the LM358 op-amp, the ULN2003A driver, 4N35 and PC817 optocouplers and an electronic load — beside transistors, diodes, capacitors, inductors, potentiometers, switches, LEDs and displays.

Auto-route & build guide

One click redraws every wire as a neat, board-aligned run around the parts. The build guide turns the desk into a parts list, a numbered jumper cutting list and step-by-step assembly for a real breadboard.

Schematic view & export

Flip any desk to its schematic, then export it to KiCad — ready to lay out a printed circuit board — or to Digital as a .dig circuit.

Serial I/O to real hardware

Connect the running circuit to a real Arduino, ESP32 or Raspberry Pi Pico over USB — Outputs drive the board, Inputs bring data back, and Chip Hippo writes the code.

3D view

Stand your desk up in 3D and fly around it — boards, chips, arching jumpers, and LEDs and displays that light as the circuit runs. Drag to orbit, scroll to zoom, double-click to frame. Switch it on in Settings ▸ Appearance.

Downloads

Available for every desktop

Version 1.5.0 — free to download and use. No account required. Release notes →

macOS
macOS 12 Monterey or later
Get it on the Mac App Store
Signed and notarized by Apple
Windows
Windows 10 / 11, 64-bit
Linux
64-bit · glibc 2.28+

The Mac App Store build is signed and notarized by Apple and needs nothing bypassed. Direct downloads are currently unsigned: on macOS, right-click the app and choose Open to bypass Gatekeeper the first time; on Windows, choose More info → Run anyway at the SmartScreen prompt. See the code-signing policy for how to verify a build, or build from source.

Feedback

Got an idea for Chip Hippo?

Missing a 74xx or CD4000 part, a tool, or a workflow you rely on at the bench? Feature requests are tracked on GitHub, out in the open — open one and it goes on the list.