CPU Sim is a Java application that allows users to design simple computer CPUs at the microcode level and to run machine-language or assembly-language programs on those CPUs through simulation. It can be used to simulate a variety of architectures, including accumulator-based, RISC-like, or stack-based (such as the JVM) architectures. It is a useful tool for instructors who want their students to get hands-on exposure to a variety of architectures and to get a chance to design and implement their own architectures and write programs in machine language and assembly language for their architectures.
The newest version 4 of CPU Sim is written using the JavaFX package (Version 3, which is still available, was written using Swing). Version 4 should run on any platform that has the Java runtime environment (JRE) version 1.8.0u40 or later installed on it. Version 3 should run on any platform that has JRE version 1.5 or later installed on it. Version 4 is backwards compatible with version 3 in that all machines created in version 3 can be loaded and run in version 4.
If you just want to run CPU Sim, you can download the necessary jar files from (the CPU Sim home page)[http://cs.colby.edu/djskrien/CPUSim/].
The CPU Sim application is a fully-integrated development environment that includes the following features.
Tools for designing a CPU at the register-transfer level:
A text editor with syntax highlighting for writing assembly language programs
An assembler for converting assembly programs into machine code for the user's CPU.
A debugger for stepping forward and backward through the execution of such programs, inspecting and optionally changing the machine state after each step.
KERRIDGE, J., AND WILLIS, N. 1980. A Simulator for Teaching Computer Architecture. SIGCSE Bulletin, 12(2), 65-71.
This simulator is the precursor to CPU Sim.
SKRIEN, D., AND HOSACK, J. 1991. A multilevel simulator at the register transfer level for use in an introductory machine organization class. SIGCSE Bulletin (Papers of the 22nd ACM/SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education), 23(1), 347-351.
This article describes version 1.0.13 of CPU Sim.
SKRIEN, D. 1994. CPU Sim: A Computer Simulator for Use in an Introductory Computer Organization Class. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 6(1), 3-13.
This article describes version 2.2 of CPU Sim.
SKRIEN, D. 2001. CPU Sim 3.1: A tool for simulating computer architectures for computer organization classes. (ACM Journal of Educational Resources in Computing (JERIC))[http://www.acm.org/pubs/jeric/] 1(4), 46-59. This issue of JERIC is a special one devoted to computer architecture simulators.
I also presented a (faculty poster)[http://www.cs.wpi.edu/%7Ecew/sigcse2002posters/skrien.html] at SIGCSE 2002 about CPU Sim 3.1.
This project is licensed under the TODO INSERT LICENSE HERE located in LICENSE.md.
CPU Sim requires Oracle Java 1.8+ (Oracle is required for JavaFX), and Gradle 2.+ to be built. This guide assumes you
have Gradle installed and is accessible via gradle on the command-line (Window's users, it is likely gradle.bat).
For all development environments, clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/Colby-CPU-Sim/CPUSimFX2015.git
Most developers will use (IntelliJ Idea)[https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/] by JetBrains. To develop with IntelliJ, download and install IntelliJ.
/usr/lib/gradle/$GRADLE_VERSION/usr/local/Cellar/gradle/$GRADLE_VERSION/libexecThis guide involves working directly with the command-line, for *NIX like environments (OS X, Linux) it is the same directions.
cd path/to/cpusim/clonegradle distjava -jar ./build/libs/CPUSim-*.jar