LRR-TUM-Logo Department of Informatics
Technische Universität München
Informatik X: Rechnertechnik und Rechnerorganisation / Parallelrechnerarchitektur
Prof. Dr. Arndt Bode , Prof. Dr. Hans Michael Gerndt 		abakus50x50.gif
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JMic
Simulating a Microprogrammable Machine in Java

Project Overview

Teaching the composition and functionality of micro processors is a difficult task in technical computer science courses. This is due to the fact that sometimes the structure of modern processors has evolved over decades and has often been influenced by commercial motivations. Using interactive animations and simulations can simplify this task enormously, students can immediately test components and get a visual illustration of how different components work together.

Thus, we developed a Java-based simulator of a microprogrammeable machine. In contrast to traditional simulators, the program takes leave of the black-box paradigm but is internally similarially structured than the hardware implementation of the machine. Thus, by investigating the source code of the simulator, the students can obtain insights in the machine's implementation. Furthermore, by making changes to the program, they can modify the architecture and investigate the effects on the system's behavior.

The white-box implementation was achieved by a set of basic Java-classes, which can be used to implement arbitrary combinatorial and sequential circuits. These can be repeatedly combined in a hierachic fashion to create more complex circuits. Hence, the overall system is hierarchically structured which contributes to an easy understandability of the simulator.

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