A Survey and Evaluation of Simulators Suitable for Teaching Courses in Computer Architecture and Organization

Courses in Computer Architecture and Organization are regularly included in Computer Engineering curricula. These courses are usually organized in such a way that students obtain not only a purely theoretical experience, but also a practical understanding of the topics lectured. This practical work is usually done in a laboratory using simulators of computer systems. Since the open literature contains a variety of simulators being used for such purposes, this paper attempts to give a survey of simulators suitable for teaching courses in computer architecture and organization, to establish the evaluation criteria and to evaluate selected simulators according to these criteria.      

Using Web-Based Teaching Interventions in Computer Science Courses

An open-source management system of Web-based teaching interventions is presented that can be used in general for science curriculum courses and especially for computer science courses. The proposed solution is called System of Teaching Intelligent Interventions (STII) and facilitates the authoring, deployment, and evaluation of Web-based metaphors. This paper discusses the use of metaphors for assisting students to comprehend the substance of cognitive concepts and their basic background. STII has been applied in a particular educational scenario during the learning process of 228 students attending the course ldquocomputer applications.rdquo The presentation of results from a pilot evaluation of two metaphors demonstrates the usefulness of the system. The evaluation focuses on the impact of the two metaphors on student learning, and on detecting potential correlations between metaphors and students' groups. STII evaluation conclusions strongly support that multimedia metaphors can be used as an alternative instructional tool to assist students in confronting their cognitive constraints and developing functional understanding of curriculum courses.     

Spim-Cache: A Pedagogical Tool for Teaching Cache Memories Through Code-Based Exercises

Cache memories represent a core topic in all computer organization and architecture courses offered at universities around the world. As a consequence, educational proposals and textbooks address important efforts to this topic. A valuable pedagogical help when studying cache memories is to perform exercises based on simple algorithms, which allow the identification of cache accesses, for instance, a program accessing the elements of an array. These exercises, referred to as code-based exercises, have a good acceptance among instructors of computer organization courses. Nevertheless, no tool (e.g., simulator) has been developed to be used in undergraduate courses working with this kind of exercises; therefore, students perform such exercises by means of the classic paper and pencil methodology. To fill this gap, this paper proposes a new pedagogical tool, namely Spim-cache. A laboratory example is also presented for illustrative purposes.     

Prolog simulation of computer architecture in laboratory activities

Implementation of a computer architecture simulator prototype written in Turbo Prolog, which is suitable for educational purposes, is described. Besides adapting to teaching needs for conventional use, the simulator design incorporates features for an easy alteration of computer architectural structures appropriate to the trainee's learning level. Thus, this simulator is not limited to a particular architecture but permits the student to vary dynamically the architectural characteristics of the computer under study in order to verify the consequences of his decisions and to experiment with families of computers and alternatives of design     

Designing and Using Software Tools for Educational Purposes: FLAT, a Case Study

Educational software tools are considered to enrich teaching strategies, providing a more compelling means of exploration and feedback than traditional blackboard methods. Moreover, software simulators provide a more motivating link between theory and practice than pencil-paper methods, encouraging active and discovery learning in the students. The use and development of educational software is a field that has grasped the attention of teachers and researchers from different disciplines and theoretical frameworks in the last few years. In this paper, the authors present SoftwarE for Learning Formal languages and Automata theory (SELFA), an educational software simulator tool, designed to improve the quality of teaching in Theory of Computation courses. The aim of this tool is to make it easier to teach and to learn the main concepts of this subject, whose level of abstraction makes both activities difficult. The main advantage of this tool over other software tools designed with the same purpose, is that it has been developed using web technologies. This allows the user to collect and analyze data on how and when a student or group has used the tool. These numerical data can then be used to evaluate the student's work.      

A web-based educational environment for teaching the computer cache memory

In this paper, a Web-based educational setting for teaching the computer cache memory is presented, aiming at supporting and enhancing the learning process and promoting the active and constructive involvement of students. The educational setting includes Web text-based educational material, a Web-based cache memory simulation program, and educational activities that enable the students to participate actively in the learning process and to collaborate in groups. The design of the educational setting was based on the principles derived from the conceptual change approach regarding the students' theory framework, the students learning difficulties/misconceptions, the text comprehension theory, and contemporary teaching approaches. The results obtained from the application/evaluation of a set of educational activities have been encouraging, indicating that the simulation program and the context of the activities can effectively support and enhance the learning process.     

Software Optimization for Improving Student Motivation in a Computer Architecture Course

This paper presents a learning activity designed to improve student motivation towards learning certain topics in computer architecture, particularly assembly-level machine organization. This activity applies a pedagogical method suitable for computer architecture courses. The method improves motivation by allowing students to verify by themselves, on real platforms, that they can apply their architecture knowledge to improve software performance and also by showing them the improvements achieved in complete applications. The activity is compared to other such activities based on different motivation and learning techniques.     

Introducing computer structure by machine simulation

A simple computer simulator used to introduce freshmen engineering students to machine structure through assembly programmable is described. A four-week course module is described, suited to the IEEE curriculum recommendations. It is built around a simulator called Simian and an accompanying assembler keyed to the IEEE-694 standard. Simian simulates a byte-addressable 32-bit machine, continuously displaying register contents and selected portions of memory. Version of Simian exist for both Unix and MS-DOS, permitting students to use it both in the laboratory and on personal computers. Learning time for Simian itself, a critical parameters in simulators designed for teaching, is 1-2 hours for students with little prior computer experience     

Use of Constructivism and Collaborative Teaching in an ILP Processors Course

Simulators are widely used to teach instruction level parallelism (ILP) topics. A simulator called SIMDE, which combines the superscalar and very long instruction word (VLIW) approaches to ILP processors in a single environment, has been developed. SIMDE has been validated and improved using feedback from students during two academic years. Although the simulator is a valuable tool in and of itself, this paper goes one step beyond by using SIMDE with an educational methodology based on constructivism and collaborative learning. This methodology has been applied in a computer architecture course that uses the Moodle platform as a framework for collaboration between students and teachers     

An interactive electronic book approach for teaching computer implementation of industrial control systems

There is an overall consensus on the importance of laboratory work that exposes the students to broader and more practical issues of industrial control systems, such as their implementation by distributed computer systems (DCSs) and programmable logic controllers (PLCs). However, setting up appropriate laboratory facilities to serve this purpose is expensive. For this reason, an interactive learning environment has been developed around the concept of the electronic book. The architecture of the environment allows the integration of hypertext with simulators of DCS, PLC, and process operation. The simulators are specially designed to serve an application-oriented teaching approach, which involves the student in the simulation setup and the running of the application. They are able to simulate not only the execution of the software that realizes the regulatory control algorithms but also the start-up and emergency control strategies of an industrial process, the manual, automatic, and cascade modes of controller operation, and the man-machine interface of a DCS- or PLC-based control system. The applications on which the teaching of DCS and PLC-based control system implementation is based are the interactive advanced control of a distillation column and the pH control of a reactor solution.     

Collaborative web-based experimentation in flexible engineering education

The Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, is deploying a flexible learning scheme for selected pilot courses in engineering education. In such a scheme, traditional lectures and written exercises are combined with additional Web-based learning resources. The main objective of this initiative is to sustain the evolution from traditional teaching to active learning and to better integrate the increasing number of educational resources available online. In engineering education, a key activity to sustain the learning process is hands-on experimentation carried out using either simulation tools or real equipment. This paper describes how a collaborative Web-based experimentation environment has been introduced at the EPFL for providing more flexibility to students performing laboratory experiments in automatic control, biomechanics, and fluid mechanics. It particularly describes the eJournal, a Web service integrated in the proposed learning environment that enables the collection and sharing of preparatory notes and experimental results with both peers and teaching assistants.     

Computer-aided engineering for computer architecture laboratories

Students coming to senior-level computer architecture courses generally have a substantial background in introductory computer organization, assembly-language programming, and digital-logic design. With this background they are ready to embark on sizable design and implementation projects in computer architecture. The author describes an engineering workstation environment that supports student laboratories in computer architecture. The backbone of this environment is a digital simulator that gives each first-term architecture student the necessary power to produce their own working (simulated) computer     

Computer assisted learning in power system relaying

A computer package developed for power system protection design is used to teach protection coordination at City University, London. Examples of package use and experience gained from computer assisted learning in this subject are described. The simulation of protection systems gives students an opportunity to observe the actions of each device after they complete their protection schemes. In order to preserve flexibility within this self-learning environment, an expert system is included in the package. The use of an expert system is to make learning as effective as possible by providing guidance on the teaching material. It plays its role only if it is invoked. In other words, the expert system does not supervise learning, but can provide the necessary guidance if a request is made. If there is any error, the result of the simulation will also show the nature of the problem. The debugging function can help the students to detect the errors they have made and know how the devices work in the power system. The potential of a well-designed computer package is not only to strengthen teaching and learning, but also lead to creative contributions to the educational process. This benefit is not available through traditional lectures and textbooks     

Teaching computer networking fundamentals using practical laboratory exercises

Motivating students to learn computer networking concepts is often difficult because many students find the subject rather technical, dry, and boring. To overcome this problem, the author has prepared some practical laboratory exercises (practicals) and other materials. They are designed around a network operating system and a multiuser, multitasking operating system and are suitable for classroom use in undergraduate computer networking courses. The effectiveness of these practicals has been evaluated both formally by students and informally in discussion within the teaching team. The implementation of the practicals was judged to be successful because of the positive student feedback and also because students scored better in the final exam. This paper describes the practicals, their overall effectiveness, and plans for further projects. The impact of practicals on student learning and comprehension is also discussed.     

An automated feedback system for computer organization projects

This paper describes a system, built and refined over the past five years, that automatically analyzes student programs assigned in a computer organization course. The system tests a student's program, then e-mails immediate feedback to the student to assist and encourage the student to continue testing, debugging, and optimizing his or her program. The automated feedback system improves the students' learning experience by allowing and encouraging them to improve their program iteratively until it is correct. The system has also made it possible to add challenging parts to each project, such as optimization and testing, and it has enabled students to meet these challenges. Finally, the system has reduced the grading load of University of Michigan's large classes significantly and helped the instructors handle the rapidly increasing enrollments of the 1990s. Initial experience with the feedback system showed that students depended too heavily on the feedback system as a substitute for their own testing. This problem was addressed by requiring students to submit a comprehensive test suite along with their program and by applying automated feedback techniques to help students learn how to write good test suites. Quantitative iterative feedback has proven to be extremely helpful in teaching students specific concepts about computer organization and general concepts on computer programming and testing.     

A Laboratory Setup and Teaching Methodology for Wireless and Mobile Embedded Systems

Increasingly, electrical and computer engineers are making their careers in designing wireless embedded systems. This paper presents a teaching methodology and the associated laboratory setup designed to meet the needs in teaching wireless embedded systems. The courses allow the students not only to apply their previous knowledge of digital system design, computer architecture, electronic circuits, wireless networking, and software engineering, but experience actual systems engineering by designing and implementing a large-scale team project within a semester. A flexible hardware platform was developed and was accompanied by teaching methodologies that allow quick completion of ambitious course projects in this area.      

Building intelligent tutorial systems for teaching simulation inengineering education

A framework for building intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) to teach students the use of various simulation systems used in engineering education is described. Case studies to two widely used simulators in electronics education (LASAR, a digital logic simulator, and SPICE, an integrated circuit simulator) provide the basis of pedagogical methodology for teaching the use of simulators. This methodology is used to develop a tutorial environment which includes: an authoring system that enables an instructor to develop and tailor the course contents; and a course presentation system that communicates this information via a direct manipulation interface to the user. The student perceives the tutorial as a hypertext network which can be freely explored; however, the tutoring system monitors and dynamically reconfigures the accessible information according to the level and attainment of expertise by the student. The environment includes components to monitor and evaluate the performance of the student. This tutorial framework is used to create intelligent tutorial systems for SPICE and LASAR     

A program of computer-aided coordination analysis for anundergraduate course in protective relaying

The authors introduce a program used as a tool for protective relaying courses at the undergraduate level. This program allows students to practice protective devices coordination in power systems on a personal computer by representing the time-current curve with dynamic computer graphics. The program is provided with a debugging system that is designed to inform the user of any problem found in a protection scheme. To make students fully understand the dynamic performance of protective devices coordination, the program allows students to assign the location of a fault, and will display the operating time of the protective devices according to the tripping sequence. The program also has the function of automatic coordination analysis, the results of which can be compared with the user's scheme and can also help the user to have a better understanding of what is actually used in industry today