edu.LMC and other LMC simulation approaches: contributions to computer architecture education using the LMC paradigm

Abstract

The LMC paradigm is not a recent approach to teaching computer architecture: it has been presented, tested and used since 1965, first by its authors, Madnick and Donovan, and their MIT students, and since then in many other universities around the world. The main purpose of the LMC paradigm is to explain, using a very simple model, the main components of a real computer system, and to learn how to program using a simple decimalencoded instruction set. Using new LMC simulators (based on the LMC paradigm) developed since then, students can nowadays take advantage of simulation processes (e.g., to simulate a program’s step-by-step execution). We evaluated six different LMC simulators, picked the “best practices” associated with each one, and developed a new simulator especially focused on management and informatics undergraduate student requirements. This new simulator, edu.LMC, has been tested in a computer architecture course