CPU Sim explained

Wombat (Animal)
Author:Dale Skrien[1]
Latest Release Version:4.0.11
Latest Release Date:August, 2017
Programming Language:Java
Operating System:MS-Windows, Linux, Mac (Cross-platform)
Genre:IDE
License:GPLv3+

CPU Sim is a software development environment for the simulation of simple computers. It was developed by Dale Skrien to help students understand computer architectures. With this application the user is able to simulate new or existing simple CPUs. Users can create new virtual CPUs with custom machine language instructions, which are implemented by a sequence of micro instructions. CPU Sim allows the user to edit and run assembly language programs for the CPU being simulated.

CPU Sim has been programmed using the Java Swing package. This means that it is platform independent (runs on every platform that has a Java virtual machine installed).

Wombat 1 Sample CPU

A sample computer system, the Wombat 1, is provided with CPU Sim. It has the following registers:

The assembly language of the Wombat 1 computer consists of 12 instructions. Each instruction is stored on 16 bits; the first 4 are the opcode and the other 12 are the address field.

MnemonicOperation codeField lengthMeaning
stop016stops the program execution
load14 12transfers data from memory to the accumulator
store24 12transfers data from the accumulator to memory
read34 (12)puts the data from the IO console to the accumulator
write44 (12)sends the data from the accumulator to the IO console
add54 12adds the data from memory to the accumulator and the result is then stored in the accumulator
subtract64 12subtracts the data from memory from the accumulator and the result is then stored in the accumulator
multiply74 12multiplies the data from the memory by the accumulator and the result is then stored in the accumulator
divide84 12divides the data from the memory into the accumulator and the result is then stored in the accumulator
jmpz94 12jump to address if the accumulator is 0
jmpnA4 12jump to address if the accumulator is negative
jumpB4 12unconditioned jump to address

Features

CPU Sim has the following features:

Example program for the Wombat 1 CPU

This program reads in integers until a negative integer is read. It then outputs the sum of all the positive integers.

Start:	read		// read n -> acc
	jmpn  Done  	// jump to Done if acc < 0.
	add   sum  	// add sum to the acc
	store sum 	// store the new sum
	jump  Start	// go back & read in next number
Done:	load  sum 	// load the final sum
	write 		// write the final sum
	stop  		// stop

sum:	.data 2 0	// 2-byte location where sum is stored

The following modification of the program is also used sometimes:

Start:	read		// read n -> acc
	jmpz  Done  	// jump to Done if nacc is 0.
	add   sum  	// add sum to the acc
	store sum 	// store the new sum
	jump  Start	// go back & read in next number
Done:	load  sum 	// load the final sum
	write 		// write the final sum
	stop  		// stop

sum:	.data 2 0	// 2-byte location where sum is stored
This one can use negative input to subtract, or 0 to break the loop.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ506897&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ506897 CPU SIM: A Computer Simulator for Use in an Introductory Computer Organization-Architecture Class.