Assembler through the looking glass: Understanding digital systems

There are two ways of teaching students how computer systems work, in particular how the gap between a written program and the processor hardware is bridged, i.e. the assembler stage done by compilers. The traditional way is teaching by textbooks, which is very static. The other way is teaching and learning through interactive experiments, which is more dynamic and allows students to dive into the subject matters more easily. This paper focuses on how to give students an understanding of an assembler´s code generation and on some experiences gained on the teacher´s side while using a self explaining, interactive graphical assembly language translator. The assembler visualization tool shown here is part of a whole suite of applications and hardware components used within various lectures and practical labs.