Title :
An educational environment for program behavior analysis and cache memory design
Author :
Giorgi, Roberto ; Prete, Cosimo Antonio ; Prina, Gianpaolo
Author_Institution :
Dipartimento di Ingegneria della Inf., Pisa Univ., Italy
Abstract :
The authors present an educational software package (Csim) used as a teaching tool to analyze the structure and behavior of a cache memory and to help the student in the design of cache memories for embedded systems. By means of an integrated software development environment, the user can create a program and explore its behavior (locality analysis). The student can observe the cache actions needed for a memory operation and evaluate the cache performance as a function of the configuration parameters. Finally, the parametric-evaluation graphical tools help in the actual design of an embedded system, in order to find the cache and memory configuration which provides the best balance between cost and performance
Keywords :
cache storage; computer science education; courseware; integrated software; real-time systems; software engineering; teaching; Csim courseware; cache memory design; cache performance; computer science education programmes; educational environment; educational software package; embedded systems; integrated software development environment; locality analysis; parametric-evaluation graphical tools; program behavior analysis; student; Cache memory; Costs; Design engineering; Education; Embedded system; Instruments; Packaging; Programming; Software packages; Very large scale integration;
Conference_Titel :
Frontiers in Education Conference, 1997. 27th Annual Conference. Teaching and Learning in an Era of Change. Proceedings.
Conference_Location :
Pittsburgh, PA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-4086-8
DOI :
10.1109/FIE.1997.632644
