SP-1: Design and Simulation of 4-bit Simple CPU on Logisim for Computer Architecture Education

Abstract

Teaching Computer Organization and Architecture (COA) course often involves review of internals of real life processors which are not enough for students to achieve a deep understanding of a Central Processing Unit (CPU). Designing and simulating a simplistic CPU with important features of real processors step by step using a logic simulator called Logisim can help students close the gap between theory and hands-on experience. This paper proposes the simulation and design of a simple 4-bit CPU architecture called SP-l for undergraduate COA course using Logisim simulator which can also help achieve Learning Outcomes (LO) of COA course recommended by ACM Curricula. Proposed CPU architecture includes ALU, Register Set, Memory and other structures whose simulations are easy for undergraduate students to visualize and understand.