CAMERA: introducing memory concepts via visualization

  • Authors:
  • Linda Null;Karishma Rao

  • Affiliations:
  • The Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg, Middletown, PA;The Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg, Thorndale, PA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 36th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

CAMERA, Cache and Memory Resource Allocation, is a collection of workbenches for cache mapping schemes (including direct, fully associative, and set associative) and virtual memory (including paging and TLBs). Its goals are to provide users with interactive tutorials and simulations to help them better understand the fundamental concepts of memory management. Implemented in Java Swing, these workbenches allow users to observe the processes of memory to cache mapping, and virtual memory using paging. The workbenches have proven useful in both introductory architecture classes and operating system classes. Students find CAMERA easy to use, even without the supplied user's guide. In the paper, we compare CAMERA to various existing systems and explore the software's features in detail in addition to discussing future enhancements.