An Interactive Toolkit for Designing and Exploring Custom CPU Architectures

Abstract

Computer architecture is very difficult for users to understand due to its abstract nature. We present a CPU Architecture Toolkit, a software application that allows users to design their own CPU, specifying memory size, bus size, registers, addressing modes, flag registers, and instructions. The most distinctive feature of the toolkit is the level of control it provides, allow- ing users to define the behavior of instructions. This enables users to specify and write their own micro-operations and observe how the instruction executes and behaves. To the best of our knowledge, no existing toolkit or simulator provides this level of control and flexibility to the user when customizing CPU designs and defining micro-operations. This paper describes the system design, implementation, and educational value of the toolkit as an innovative aid for both teaching and research in the field of computer architecture.