1 / 10

A spreadsheet-based simulation of CPU instruction execution

A spreadsheet-based simulation of CPU instruction execution. R. E. Smith Computer & Computational Science University of St. Thomas St. Paul, MN. The Spreadsheet CPU. Motivation – teaching about the CPU Overview – using a spreadsheet Literacy Version Architecture Version Fetch Cycle

jovan
Download Presentation

A spreadsheet-based simulation of CPU instruction execution

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. A spreadsheet-based simulation of CPU instruction execution R. E. Smith Computer & Computational Science University of St. Thomas St. Paul, MN R. Smith - University of St Thomas - Minnesota

  2. The Spreadsheet CPU • Motivation – teaching about the CPU • Overview – using a spreadsheet • Literacy Version • Architecture Version • Fetch Cycle • Execute Cycle R. Smith - University of St Thomas - Minnesota

  3. Teaching about the CPU • Literacy – how a CPU works • Fetch-Execute Cycle – what the Gigahertz count • Registers and RAM • Machine language programming • Architecture – how instructions work • Mechanism for instruction decoding and execution • Modifying the instruction set – adding and changing R. Smith - University of St Thomas - Minnesota

  4. Using a spreadsheet • Why: Students are familiar with them • Cells provide a visual representation of RAM • Functional semantics via the “Value Rule” • Contrast with machine language semantics • How: Implementing the behavior • Use a column of cells as RAM • Separate columns for “fetch” and “execute” cycles • Use a ‘macro’ to cycle the state machine • Separate cells for “last state” and “next state” • Each register has its own row R. Smith - University of St Thomas - Minnesota

  5. Literacy version R. Smith - University of St Thomas - Minnesota

  6. Architecture Version • Goals • Better instruction set: conditionals, indexing • Easy for students to follow instruction execution • Easy for students to modify instructions • First attempt • Instructions assigned to separate columns • Registers/cycles split into separate rows • Hard to explain and modify • Current version • Separate “sheets”/tabs for each instruction cycle • Easier to add a “defer” cycle for indirection, if desired R. Smith - University of St Thomas - Minnesota

  7. Architecture Version: Fetch Cycle R. Smith - University of St Thomas - Minnesota

  8. Execute Cycle R. Smith - University of St Thomas - Minnesota

  9. Demonstration R. Smith - University of St Thomas - Minnesota

  10. Instruction Set R. Smith - University of St Thomas - Minnesota

More Related