Teaching Computer Architecture in a PC Equipped Lab Using Turbo and Sun Assembly Language

摘要

Cadets at the US Military Academy majoring in computer science or computer engineering take an introductory computer architecture course. In contrast to your traditional architecture course, ours is taught in a PC equipped classroom. Cadets learn the basic organization and internal functioning of an IBM PC by employing Turbo Assembler. Important teaching points can be emphasized by having cadets step though an assembly language program while observing the various changes in the registers and status flags. By studying the control flow of actual programs, cadets gain a better appreciation of the data flow, timing and control necessary to execute a program. The goal of the course is to gain an understanding of the importance of assembly language and its relationship to a computer's architecture, not to make cadets experts in assembly language programming.As the course progresses, cadets learn to program in Sun assembler and observe their results using gdb. Having already been exposed to assembly language programming, the learning curve associated with another is greatly diminished. A central theme throughout the course is the difference between RISC and CISC machines. By programming both types, cadets see first-hand the difference between CISC and RISC CPU's. Cadets learn the different flow of control required in the Sun architecture as they explore Sun assembler. The culmination of the learning process occurs as cadets come to fully appreciate the differences between a CISC (IBM PC) and a RISC (Sun) architecture. This hands-on approach to learning, that employs multiple assembly languages in a PC configured classroom, greatly enhances the understanding of a computer's architecture.