부산대학교 도서관

Processor design is an exciting yet challenging course that requires students to have background knowledge in computer architecture and hands-on experience in digital logic design. Teaching processor design is also an ongoing challenge for instructors due to the ever-increasing complexity of modern processors. To deal with this complexity, many computer-engineering courses rely on customized FPGA-based CPU platforms and tools to teach processor design effectively. This approach not only clearly illustrates the design process while omitting non-essential details, but also gives students additional motivation by being able to build a working processor on actual hardware and evaluate design alternatives. Recently, we initiated a project to develop a family of FPGA-based processors and set of tools for instructional use in our processor design course at the undergraduate level. This paper is an overview of the major tools we prepared: a family of educational processors, an assembler, an assembly language simulator, and a debugger. Examples are given to show how these hardware and software tools are used in the teaching process.