MarieSim: The MARIE Computer Simulator

MarieSim is a computer architecture simulator based on the MARIE architecture and designed to teach beginning computer organization and architecture. It provides users with interactive tools and simulations to help them deepen their understanding of the operation of a simple computer. Through interaction with MarieSim's graphical environment, students can observe how assembly language statements affect the registers and memory of a computer system. The graphical environment for MarieSim and the accompanying data path simulator are written in Java Swing; the integrated MARIE assembler is written in Java. The software has proven useful in introductory computer organization and architecture classes. Students find MarieSim very easy to use, and anecdotal results indicate increased architectural understanding. In this article we compare MarieSim to various existing systems and explore the software's features in detail. Categories and Subject Descriptors: C.0 [Computer Systems Organization]: General- Modeling of computer architecture; 1.6.5 [Simulation and Modeling]: Model Development; K.3.1 [Computers and Education]: Computer Uses in Education.