Presentation and simulation of computer architectures

Abstract

Understanding modern computer architectures requires a good knowledge of the dynamic behavior of processors. A new alternative platform for creating and delivering presentations that successfully combines positive issues of both general and special-purpose presentation tools for computer architectures is proposed in this paper. Proposed platform introduces the concept of dynamic usage of data providers during the presentation and creating slide templates instead of slide creation. Originally developed presentation/simulation tool SimArch that implements almost all key features from the new platform is described. SimArch is designed for teaching/research purposes and devoted to description and visualization of computer architectures. Crucial novelties in SimArch related to involving of slide templates, behavior cases and selection of examples are demonstrated on examples based on MIPS architecture subsets.