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Smalltalk to teach Computer Architecture

Practical experiences and levels of teaching computer architecture using SmallTalk, simulators, and processors. Learn the basics, intermediate, and advanced concepts with user-friendly tools.

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Smalltalk to teach Computer Architecture

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  1. Smalltalk to teach Computer Architecture ESUG 2003 Meeting Bled, Slovenia. August 2003

  2. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 Germán Fabregat Computer Architecture Group Departamento de Ingeniería y Ciencia de los Computadores University Jaume I Castellón, SPAIN

  3. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 Practical experience

  4. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 • I am a Computer Architect, not a Software Engineer • I was a C programmer, and sceptical about the use of Smalltalk except to play with

  5. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 • I discovered Smalltalk during a stage at the UBO, some five years ago • I developed my last processor simulator during a week, and is used by more than 300 students per year

  6. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 Using VisualWorks V5i.3 Smalltalk

  7. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 Teaching Computer Architecture

  8. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 Elementary level • Parts of a computer • Von Neumann and Harvard Architectures • Basics of the execution of programs

  9. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 Intermediate level • Assembly programming • Input/output and exception management • Basics of the CPU internals

  10. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 Advanced level • Control unit design • Instruction level parallelism • Superscalar and VLIW processors • Performance issues

  11. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 The only affordable way to carry out practical -laboratory- work on the highlighted items is through simulation

  12. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 The ideal laboratory environment • Homogeneous for all levels/simulators • Platform (OS) independent (more than 5 labs and 500 students) • Easy to modify, upgrade, customize, manipulate... • Complex things -VHDL- are not really required (nor desired)

  13. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 The simulators

  14. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 The First Development • General circuit simulator • Based on the classes • CPURegister • CPUCombinatorial

  15. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 The First Development • Simulation engine based on value holders • Developed and tested in 2 months, with no previous Smalltalk programming experience

  16. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003

  17. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 The Second Development • Second version of the previous simulator • Used to teach Control Unit design at the University of Bretagne Occidentale. Brest, France

  18. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003

  19. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 The Last Development • Fully new simulator design • Used by more than 600 students during 2 academic years • Developed in a week (the basic version)

  20. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 The Last Development • Basic Processor for the elementary level • The instruction set was not fully known during the development • Changes and upgrades were expected during the first weeks of use

  21. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 The Last Development • The processor-like model was not suitable • Execution is responsibility of each instruction • Each instruction type is a subclass of the root class Instruction

  22. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003

  23. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 The Last Development • New instructions were continuously added to fit the requirements of the teachers • The processor was easily upgraded to support interrupts and input/output • The executable image can be obtained at http:/mermaja.act.uji.es/otros/pb/pbintro.html

  24. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003

  25. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 Why Smalltalk?

  26. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 • Building rich user interfaces is fast and easy • All the simulators have the same look and feel • The applications are platform independent

  27. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 • Simple systems are easy to build, upgrade and modify • Complex systems are easy to grow from simpler ones, adding components in a modular way

  28. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 • Simulators can be built focusing on the important aspects, without worrying about data types, instruction coding... • Pre-built high level tools -parsers- can be added to allow user configurability • ...

  29. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 The Future

  30. SmallTalk to teach Computer Architecture - ESUG 2003 Meeting - Bled, Slovenia. August 2003 • Smalltalk is well established in my research team • Other colleagues teaching Computer Architecture prefer using Java • While the new panacea for the teachers of programming is Python

  31. Smalltalk to teach Computer Architecture Germán Fabregat fabregat@icc.uji.es

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