Teaching computer systems to majors: a MIPS based solution

  • Authors:
  • Murray Pearson;Tony McGregor;Geoffrey Holmes

  • Affiliations:
  • University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand;University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand;University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

  • Venue:
  • WCAE '98 Proceedings of the 1998 workshop on Computer architecture education
  • Year:
  • 1998

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Abstract

The debate over whether a Computer Science graduate should have an appreciation of hardware related topics has a long history in Computer Science Education. Given that the subject is getting broader and specialization is occurring earlier in a Computer Science degree the calls to omit this vital aspect of the subject are stronger than ever. One reason for avoiding this type of material is that its flavor is not to every student's taste, especially students interested in Information Systems as their major. If it is considered an essential component of a major then the challenge to educators is to produce a course that is technical without technical detail dominating essential concepts, coherent from a systems' perspective and relevant to majors who might have quite different orientations within the subject.