[Edumips64-commit] SF.net SVN: edumips64:[594] paper/ieee-tedu

[<sv...@ed...>]

Revision: 594
          https://www.edumips.org/changeset/594
Author:   mpalesi
Date:     2011-06-01 16:19:14 +0200 (Wed, 01 Jun 2011)
Log Message:
-----------
Updated draft of the introduction.

Modified Paths:
--------------
    paper/ieee-tedu/edumips-description.tex
    paper/ieee-tedu/introduction.tex

Modified: paper/ieee-tedu/edumips-description.tex
===================================================================
--- paper/ieee-tedu/edumips-description.tex	2011-05-30 10:26:30 UTC (rev 593)
+++ paper/ieee-tedu/edumips-description.tex	2011-06-01 14:19:14 UTC (rev 594)
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 \section{Description of the Simulator}
+\label{sec:em_description}
 As stated in the previous section, EduMIPS64 is a visual MIPS64 Instruction Set
 Simulator; in the reminder of this section, the main features of the simulator
 and of its graphical user interface will be briefly described. For more

Modified: paper/ieee-tedu/introduction.tex
===================================================================
--- paper/ieee-tedu/introduction.tex	2011-05-30 10:26:30 UTC (rev 593)
+++ paper/ieee-tedu/introduction.tex	2011-06-01 14:19:14 UTC (rev 594)
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 hierarchy~\cite{dinero-web}, out-of-order execution~\cite{???},
 superscalar systems principles~\cite{???}, \etc. The heterogeneity
 nature of the tools used to cover the different topics of the course,
-could take to a fragmentation of the knowledge. In fact, analysing in
+could take to a fragmentation of the knowledge. In fact, analyzing in
 isolation the different sub-systems of the computer system, make it
 difficult the student understanding on how those parts interact each
 other with a consequent blinding of the system-level view.
@@ -39,55 +39,30 @@
 
 Based on the international curricula recommendations, the joint IEEE
 Computer Society and Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
-Computer Engineering Task Force has identified memory hierarchy
+Computer Engineering Task Force has identified memory hierarchy
 together with pipelining as core topics in the computer organization
-and architecture area of knowledge~\cite{ieee-curricula}.
+and architecture area of knowledge~\cite{ieee-curricula}. One of the
+main difficulties encountered by the teacher in presenting the above
+core topics is finding a suitable representation of the system which,
+in general, cannot be static. In fact, presentating the basic pipeline
+events (like hazards) or the discussing the different policies to
+manage the memory hierarchy require the design of ad-hoc examples
+which cannot be summarized with a single slide. Instead, a
+cycle-by-cycle analysis is needed to show how bubbles propagate
+through the pipeline, how forwarding helps to solve kinds of data
+hazards, \etc. This paper shows how the use of a visual CPU simulator,
+namely \EM, improved the teaching quality and its effectiveness in an
+undergraduate course of basic computer architectures.
 
-TODO [difficolta' nel far capire argomenti a studenti, argomenti
-  critici da affrontare (es. quelli del survey), noi abbiamo adottato
-  questo approccio, abbiamo ottenuto questi risultati]
-
-%% The MIPS64\textregistered{} architecture~\ref{mips-1} represents
-%% one of the most widespread reference architecture in several computer
-%% architecture courses. The simplicity which characterizes such an
-%% architecture along with its flexibility in supporting a range of
-%% architectural and microarchitectural features for performance
-%% improvement, make it an ideal platform for understanding basic
-%% principles of computer architecture like ISA, pipelining, memory
-%% hierarchies, \etc.~\cite{hp}.
-
-
-
-%% For this reason, in the first half of 2006, a group of students of the
-%% Computer Science Engineering Faculty at University of Catania, Italy,
-%% developed a MIPS64 simulator, called
-%% \EM{}~\cite{edumips-web}. The project was originally started in
-%% order to make a simulator similar to WinMIPS64~\cite{winmips-web}
-%% available to users of every platform, but it progressively went beyond
-%% the original idea, growing up quickly and extending the original
-%% functionalities of WinMIPS64 with new and important (under the
-%% educational viewpoint) features like the implementation of an
-%% interrupt and exception handling system. Further, the choice of implementing
-%% the simulator in Java gave to the \EM{} project two important
-%% advantages over WinMIPS64: first, the possibility of using the
-%% simulator across different operating systems and platforms, feature of
-%% fundamental importance when dealing with heterogeneous environments
-%% (different universities, teaching laboratories, students notebooks, \etc) with
-%% no deployment issues. On the
-%% other hand, the availability of a Java-applet web interface to the simulator
-%% enables the support for new approaches in teaching courses such as
-%% distance learning. Finally, thanks to its licensing policy (GNU General Public
-%% License) \EM{} itself becomes an experimental laboratory, where
-%% every user is able to study the source code, do research activities and
-%% experiments, modify it and share the contributions back with the community.
-
-%% The rest of this paper is organized as follows.
-%Section~\ref{sec:related-works}
-%% provides a brief overview on ISSs mainly used in educational scenarios and
-%% describes how \EM{} compares to them. The basic features of \EM{} and its user
-%% interface are presented in Sections~\ref{sec:simulator} and~\ref{sec:gui}
-%% respectively. Section~\ref{sec:teaching} describes the teaching methodology
-%% supported by \EM{} along with a set of example assignments. The assessment
-%% survey and evaluation is reported in Section~\ref{sec:survey}. Finally, in
-%% Section~\ref{sec:conclusions} we draw our conclusions and discuss possible
-%% future developments.
+The rest of the paper is organized as
+follows. Section~\ref{sec:related-works} provides a brief overview on
+available tools and methodologies aimed at enhancing the learning
+process of the topics in an undergraduate course of basic computer
+architectures. Section~\ref{sec:em_description} presents the main
+features of \EM{} used as the reference simulation platform in this
+paper. The teaching methodology based on the use of \EM{} is presented
+in Section~\ref{sec:teaching}. The suitability of \EM{} is discussed
+in Section~\ref{sec:survey} by means of a quantitative assessment
+carried out by survey compiled by students themselves. Finally,
+Section~\ref{sec:conclusions} draws conclusions and discusses possible
+future investigations.