The Atmel® Simulator is a software simulator for Atmel devices where the user can run and debug code without using any hardware. It simulates the CPU, including all instructions, interrupts and most of the on-chip I/O modules.
The Simulator operates within the Atmel Studio application as a debug target. This enables the user to use the normal debug commands such as Run, Break, Reset, Single step, set breakpoints and watch variables. The I/O, memory and register views are fully functional using the Simulator.
The simulator is based on software models of devices derived directly from the hardware designs, and are thus cycle-accurate in accordance with the real devices.