Assembly Language Curriculum Realignment In Computer Engineering At Ucsc

Computer Organization is the first Computer Engineering course for most students at the University of California, Santa Cruz. It is frequently the point at which students decided whether or not to pursue computer engineering, computer science, or some other field. Prior to the revisions discussed below, the programming component was taught on simulators and PCs, a situation in which students gain no view or knowledge of the hardware inside. Our primary goal was to bring the hardware closer to the students, showing them the excitement of programming a portable embedded system with direct feedback, such as blinking lights and sounds. Our secondary goals was to revise the course curriculum to better serve the needs of the following courses in microprocessor systems, computer architecture, compilers, and operating systems.