An Integrated Environment for Teaching Computer Architecture

A major problem in teaching computer architecture and organization courses is how to help students make the cognitive leap that connects their theoretical knowledge with practical experience. Numerous researchers involved in computer architecture and organization education have tackled this problem, resulting in a variety of educational tools for computer system simulation. The tools differ greatly in scope, target architecture complexity, simulation level, and user interface, as the “Related work” sidebar on p. 70 explains. The available educational systems vary in how they handle digital system simulation. They usually offer tools for creating hardware component libraries, viewing simulation results, and conducting statistical analysis of system performance. Available systems range from sophisticated ones, for complex analysis, to simpler ones that are more readily understood by users, both instructors and students. Beyond system simulation, an educational system should support three key objectives. First, it must cover an extensive range of computer architecture and organization topics. Second, it should graphically depict a computer system, from the block level to the register-transfer level. Third, it must provide the means to follow system functions at the program, instruction, and clock cycle levels. Because our analysis of available tools and systems produced none that met the stated objectives, we developed the integrated educational environment (so named because of its multifaceted capabilities) described in this article. We use this environment in two courses at the University of Belgrade. The first course, a second-year undergraduate course, covers basic computer structure concepts, including processor, memory, input/output subsystem, and bus. The second course goes one step further and covers, for example, CISC and RISC processor architecture and organization, and organization of pipelined processors, storage, interconnections, and memory.