Computer architecture simulation applets for use in teaching

Visualisation of the activities which occur inside a computer is an important aspect of computer architecture education. At the University of Edinburgh we are using a hierarchical computer architecture design and simulation environment (HASE) to build a number of architectural models for use in research and teaching. A new facility within HASE, JavaHASE, allows models to be translated into applets which can be accessed via the WWW. JavaHASE applets are programmable simulation models in which the code and data memory contents can be altered, the simulation re-run in the applet and the results used to visualise the activities taking place within the model (data movements, state changes, register/memory content changes, etc). These applets are being used in various ways in teaching.