Design of a small development system to teach microprocessors

Abstract

Teaching of microprocessors requires courses which take place just between computer science courses and logic courses. The real synthesis of all these knowledges can only be made during tutorials when the student is in front of a concrete problem. System design and debug require many hardware and software tools for tutorials (one for each group of two or three students). Many constructors propose development systems or microcomputer boards (kits) for system design. The first ones are too efficient and expensive for tutorials and the second ones have limited possibilities. Consequently, we have constructed a “small development system” with an ordinary kit and some improvements in hardware and software which provide some interesting features for integration, testing and debugging of systems.