VISICOMP: The Visible Computer

At the US Air Force Academy, we found our students have difficulty visualizing the inner workings of a basic computer without some type of training aid. This visualization problem has been noted by others [1][2]. Often students are taught computer architecture using a software programmer’s model, along with a software tool such as an assembler/simulator. The simulator usually can single step through a program, displaying the results of the registers after each instruction. However, many students don’t seem to follow this abstraction. They can’t see inside the microprocessor chip. Our solution was to let the students see what is inside a microprocessor by developing our own visual computer. Twenty years ago we developed EDUCOMP for this purpose and found the students enjoyed getting their hands on the hardware. Today we are replacing EDUCOMP with a newer version called VISICOMP, which is more visual and has many improvements, such as a larger memory.