DocumentCode :
1089944
Title :
Spim-Cache: A Pedagogical Tool for Teaching Cache Memories Through Code-Based Exercises
Author :
Sahuquillo, Julio ; Tomás, Noel ; Petit, Salvador ; Pont, Ana
Author_Institution :
Polytech. Univ. of Valencia, Valencia
Volume :
50
Issue :
3
fYear :
2007
Firstpage :
244
Lastpage :
250
Abstract :
Cache memories represent a core topic in all computer organization and architecture courses offered at universities around the world. As a consequence, educational proposals and textbooks address important efforts to this topic. A valuable pedagogical help when studying cache memories is to perform exercises based on simple algorithms, which allow the identification of cache accesses, for instance, a program accessing the elements of an array. These exercises, referred to as code-based exercises, have a good acceptance among instructors of computer organization courses. Nevertheless, no tool (e.g., simulator) has been developed to be used in undergraduate courses working with this kind of exercises; therefore, students perform such exercises by means of the classic paper and pencil methodology. To fill this gap, this paper proposes a new pedagogical tool, namely Spim-cache. A laboratory example is also presented for illustrative purposes.
Keywords :
cache storage; computer aided instruction; computer science education; educational courses; Spim-cache; cache memories; code-based exercises; computer architecture courses; computer organization courses; pedagogical tool; undergraduate courses; Cache memory; Computational modeling; Computer architecture; Computer simulation; Delay; Education; Educational institutions; Laboratories; Microprocessors; Proposals; Cache memories; code-based exercises; computer curricula; laboratory sessions; processor-cache simulation;
fLanguage :
English
Journal_Title :
Education, IEEE Transactions on
Publisher :
ieee
ISSN :
0018-9359
Type :
jour
DOI :
10.1109/TE.2007.900021
Filename :
4287124
Link To Document :
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