ECS e EMCS: Cache Simulators for Pedagogical Support in Computer Organization Teaching

• Dawson Paiva Lima UFMS
• Nahri Moreano UFMS

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/wei.2021.15922

Abstract

Educational simulators are fundamental tools for teaching courses in the Computer Architecture and Organization field, as they facilitate understanding the behavior of the modeled system and its evaluation, deepening the learning of the theoretical concepts studied. This work presents two cache memory simulators for educational support, the Educational Cache Simulator and the Educational Multi-Level Caches Simulator, which model a single level or two levels of cache memory, respectively. Both have an intuitive and interactive graphical interface, allow the choice of different cache configurations and monitoring the cache behavior at each access and produce performance results. The first also offers a graphical representation of the cache organization and the visualization of accesses to it. The simulators can be used to carry out experiments in laboratory classes and for extra-class study, promoting active learning and theory-practice integration.

Keywords: Cache memory, Memory hierarchy, Simulator, Computer Architecture and Organization, Teaching

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