OpenHardSim: An open source hardware based simulator for learning microprocessors

Abstract

Microprocessor (uP) Architecture and Programming constitute core courses in computer science and electronic engineering departments. A variety of tools has been used for gaining more knowledge and understanding the basic and advanced concepts of the course. These tools (hardware platforms and simulators) are focused mainly on assembly programming. Despite the existing tools, students still face great learning difficulties. On the other hand, key issues are the corresponding architecture and the programming features of the uP under studying. The above issues are not fully addressed by the existing tools. In this paper, a customizable hardware based uP simulator is presented and final proposed. Using this simulator, an experimental hypothetical educational uP can be built by students and the professors can create the corresponding learning scenarios. Based on the proposed approach, the experimental uP consists of identical hardware based blocks that can be reprogrammed for representing registers, arithmetic and logic unit, etc. Thus, the students can act now as uP architecture and assembly language designers gaining crucial knowledge in the field.