The Core War concept has been around since the 1980s. It uses a made-up version of Assembler called RedCode and the potential for using it to teach Assembler programming and computer architecture is really good. The other day I came across a variant of the RedCode-based games called CoreWars 8086. The GitHub page hosts six […]
RISC-V processors, like ARM processors, are complex beasts, making them challenging to teach with. When teaching with them it's important to have appropriate development tools to reflect the immediate pedagogical goals but also to provide students with a pathway for further learning and application. When I teach courses on computer architecture, like EECS 2021 at […]
I want to spend my sabbatical year re-thinking my perspective on C++ and Assembler and how to teach engineering and computer science material using those two languages. To keep myself focused I'll need a target application, ideally with hardware. In fact, two applications would be ideal: Controlling chip heat Alarm system The first application would […]
I don't like Assembler programming. I was forced to use it in 1997 in EE 380 on the Motorola 68000 with Prof NelsonDurdle at the University of Alberta. Ditto, for C++. My C professor, Prof. Martin Mintchev, in EE 445 convinced me that it was bloated and terrible. So, since that time, I've been programming in C on […]
As part of my sabbatical activities I took on the "Temps Pratiques" microcontroller laboratory sessions for electrical engineering and mechatronics students at INSA Strasbourg. In pre-sabbatical discussions with faculty and staff at INSA Strasbourg I found out that the students were learning using what I considered to be outdated technologies. The PIC16F84A microcontroller chip used […]
On this page you will find the documents for the "TP" (Practical Time) lab that I instructed at the INSA Strasbourg Engineering School in Strasbourg, France while I was on sabbatical from York University. Links to videos and other material are included in the PDFs. The lab uses the Microchip Curiosity board, with built-in debugger […]