An Interactive Visualization Tool for Computer Organization and Design Course

Computer Organization and Design is a pivotal course for learning an instruction set architecture (ISA), the microarchitecture which implements it, and determining a system’s overall performance. However, many concepts in this course have been found daunting to understand. To illustrate those concepts, an interactive desktop application is being developed using the Unity game engine for the purpose of enhancing student learning. This tool covers material that is traditionally covered in the course and adds security concepts to make students aware of the security issues associated with micro-architecture.