Rafael Roman Otero
ABSTRACT
A thorough understanding of concepts and principles of computer architecture and organization must be a primary goal for any computer science curriculum. Instructors face two main issues when delivering labs for these two topics: (i) a steep learning curve; and (ii) low student engagement. We believe these two challenges feed each other viciously. At the end students are discouraged and demotivated to learn and explore further. In an attempt to tackle this challenge without sacrificing the use of real hardware, we propose and demonstrate the use of a microcontroller (MCU) platform for the delivery of labs for computer architecture and organization courses. We also report our experience with the proposed approach at our university.
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Index Terms
- Teaching Computer Architecture Labs using a MCU Platform
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