Conceptual Schematization of Microcontroller and Assembly Language
Sabah Al‐Fedaghi, Noura Aljallal · International Journal of Software Engineering and Its Applications · 2014
Understanding low-level machine organization and programming often proves difficult for students and practitioners. The basic concepts behind computer operations are complicated by a multiplicity of subject domains, discrepancy between theory and practice, and ranges of abstraction. The gap between a written program and processor hardware can be bridged by utilizing an assembler visualization tool. Visualization is useful for enhancing understanding of maintenance, configuring verification, planning tests, and recognizing parallelism in computer systems. This paper proposes a diagrammatic methodology for producing a conceptual representation of assembly language instructions. Without loss of generality, this paper focuses on using these diagrams in teaching Microcontroller 8051. Its assembly constructs are represented in the proposed method in order to show that this representation can provide a foundation for understanding the behavior of running programs. The resultant schematics offer a viable method for new hardware/software independent descriptions that can be used in teaching low-level machine organization and assembly programming.