YASAC: Yet Another Simple Academic Computer and Teaching Methodology

This contribution describes Yet Another Simple Academic Computer (YASAC) used to teach basic computer structure and development concepts to first-year computer-science students. The contribution also summarizes the methodology involved in using the YASAC in class which includes the description of the computer in Verilog hardware description language, a design process separated in incremental stages and the implementation and test of the computer in an FPGA board. Academic results and student opinions are analyzed and strongly support the use of the YASAC and it related methodology.