An Integrated Educational Environment for Teaching Computer Architecture and Organisation

The paper presents an integrated educational environment for teaching courses in computer architecture and organisation. The integrated educational environment includes the Integrated Educational Computer System (IECS), the reference manuals for it, the Software Package of the Integrated Educational Computer System (SPIECS), a set of laboratory experiments, and the Computer Architecture Learning and Knowledge Assessment System (CALKAS). The IECS covers the basic structure of a computer system: processor, memory, input/output subsystem, and bus. The accompanying manuals provide all implementation details with the appropriate circuits drawings and detailed descriptions. The SPIECS includes the graphical simulators of the IECS down to the register transfer level and the tools needed to select, configure, initialise and run the simulation of the appropriate parts of the IECS. Various laboratory experiments are prepared for students’ practical work with the IECS. The CALKAS program keeps the complete evidence about each student’s work in the laboratory, assesses its knowledge at the end of each laboratory experiment and produces various reports at the completion of all laboratory experiments.