research-article

Frances: A Tool for Understanding Computer Architecture and Assembly Language

Authors:

Kian L. Pokorny,

Hridesh RajanAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE), Volume 12, Issue 4

Article No.: 14, Pages 1 - 31

https://doi.org/10.1145/2382564.2382566

Published: 01 November 2012 Publication History

Abstract

Students in all areas of computing require knowledge of the computing device including software implementation at the machine level. Several courses in computer science curricula address these low-level details such as computer architecture and assembly languages. For such courses, there are advantages to studying real architectures instead of simplified examples. However, real architectures and instruction sets introduce complexity that makes them difficult to grasp in a single semester course. Visualization techniques can help ease this burden, unfortunately existing tools are often difficult to use and consequently difficult to adopt in a course where time is already limited. To solve this problem, we present Frances. Frances graphically illustrates key differences between familiar high-level languages and unfamiliar low-level languages and also illustrates how familiar high-level programs behave on real architectures. Key to this tool is that we use a simple Web interface that requires no setup, easing course adoption hurdles. We also include several features that further enhance its usefulness in a classroom setting. These features include graphical relationships between high-level code and machine code, clearly illustrated step-by-step machine state transitions, color coding to make instruction behavior clear, and illustration of pointers. We have used Frances in courses and performed experimental evaluation. Our experiences with Frances in the classroom demonstrate its usability. Most notably, in our experimental setting, students with no computer architecture course experience were able to complete lessons using Frances with no guidance.

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Cited By

Wörister FKnobelsdorf M(2023)A Block-Based Programming Environment for Teaching Low-Level Computing (Discussion Paper)Proceedings of the 23rd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/3631802.3631825(1-7)Online publication date: 13-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3631802.3631825
Bossard A(2022)A-IDE: A Non-intrusive Cross-Platform Development Environment for AVR Programming in AssemblySoftware Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Networking and Parallel/Distributed Computing10.1007/978-3-031-19604-1_1(1-12)Online publication date: 19-Nov-2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19604-1_1

Index Terms

Frances: A Tool for Understanding Computer Architecture and Assembly Language

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cover image ACM Transactions on Computing Education

ACM Transactions on Computing Education Volume 12, Issue 4

November 2012

130 pages

EISSN:1946-6226

DOI:10.1145/2382564

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Copyright © 2012 ACM.

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Publication History

Published: 01 November 2012

Accepted: 01 June 2012

Revised: 01 May 2012

Received: 01 March 2011

Published in TOCE Volume 12, Issue 4

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Cited By

Wörister FKnobelsdorf M(2023)A Block-Based Programming Environment for Teaching Low-Level Computing (Discussion Paper)Proceedings of the 23rd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/3631802.3631825(1-7)Online publication date: 13-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3631802.3631825
Bossard A(2022)A-IDE: A Non-intrusive Cross-Platform Development Environment for AVR Programming in AssemblySoftware Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Networking and Parallel/Distributed Computing10.1007/978-3-031-19604-1_1(1-12)Online publication date: 19-Nov-2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19604-1_1

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