Watching a processor at work: A self-explanatory simulator and illustrator for the MC8 microprocessor

摘要

At the faculty of electrical engineering at the Vienna University of Technology there is a basic course called “Digital Systems”. Ambitious efforts are made to teach our students its contents in several ways: beside traditional courses to an audience of about 250 students using textbooks, there is also practical work in small classes of about 25 as well as laboratory work that has to be done on an individual basis by each student. The number of students is rather high and still increasing. Several years ago, the amounts of weekly hours of these courses have been reduced from 6.5 ECTS points to 4 ECTS points due to the “Bologna Process”. Now the laboratory is included in the practical work and has to be attended by all students during a very short time frame. In order to manage this new situation, e-learning becomes more and more important: instead of using real hardware like evaluation boards, power supplies and logic analyzers, the students can download a simulation and illustration tool that simulates all parts usually used and handled in the laboratory. This gives us the possibility to support many more students in the same time. The tool shown here reduces effort for both the students and the lecturers.