DIGITALSIMPLE REGISTER TRANSFER SIMULATOR FOR TEACHING COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE
1 Slovak Academy of Sciences (SLOVAKIA)
2 University of Technology, Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies (SLOVAKIA)
2 University of Technology, Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies (SLOVAKIA)
About this paper:
Appears in: EDULEARN23 Proceedings
Publication year: 2023
Pages: 3173-3181
ISBN: 978-84-09-52151-7
ISSN: 2340-1117
doi: 10.21125/edulearn.2023.0884
Publication year: 2023
Pages: 3173-3181
ISBN: 978-84-09-52151-7
ISSN: 2340-1117
doi: 10.21125/edulearn.2023.0884
Conference name: 15th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies
Dates: 3-5 July, 2023
Location: Palma, Spain
Dates: 3-5 July, 2023
Location: Palma, Spain
Abstract:
Skilled information technology specialists are currently in high demand in many countries, including Slovakia. To help students better prepare for these attractive jobs, it is important for technical universities to offer high quality education in STEM subjects.In this work, we are particularly interested in the subject Principles of computer engineering (PCE) taught to all first year students at the Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies (FIIT) at the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava. Among other topics, students learn the basic concepts of digital computer architecture and its subsystems such as processors, memory, interconnections and input-output devices. To test their knowledge, home assignments are given. Using a simple computer subsystem simulator with graphical interface, they are required to write a certain program in a register transfer level language. The main goal is for them to grasp the concepts of inner workings of basic computer architecture and communication between its subsystems.
Over the past 16 years, the software simulator students are using to complete this task was updated and redesigned several times. However, the latest major overhaul was in 2014 and the software needed to be upgraded to meet modern standards and fix many problems and bugs. To address these issues, we designed and implemented a new simulator named RegSim with the following properties:
a. Simple and clean graphical user interface with modern design.
b. Ease of use and foolproof elements.
c. Responsiveness, speed, stability.
d. Multi-platform support for different operating systems.
The software was recently put into the pilot testing phase at FIIT and students were able to use it for the first time. The collected feedback so far is very positive, both from students as well as teachers involved with PCE. In this paper, we will describe the application in detail, provide additional information on testing and feedback from users and outline the future work.