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This year course includes creating a compiler of course using Syntax Analyzer and Lexical Analyzer, Semantics and of course through all this generate Assembly Code
But also the teaching program includes using at least a little piece of hardware to pass assembly code to it.
Does anyone know a programmable hardware that we can use just for education purposes?
We will pass assembly code to the hardware.
My first piece of advice would be to avoid any modern hardware (and possibly to avoid hardware itself, as the simulators out there are pretty good). As far as I can tell, all of the very cheap processors out there right now (such as come with Arduino) use languages like asm, and do not lend themselves to the kind of conceptually clear assembly programming that would presumably be most helpful for your students.
In a prior discussion, I talked about the experience I've had teaching with 6502 Assembly, and I would recommend this course as well. This plucky little processor (and, therefore, its assembly language as well) is about as clean, simple, and streamlined as a processor can be.
Additionally, there is a lovely simulator for the 6502, a complete assembly specification, a community devoted to it, and
And if you do want to continue on to use actual hardware, the following computers used the 6502, many of which are readily available on eBay and the like:
The 32-bit subsets of ARM assembly language are fairly clean, orthogonal and RISC-like, as well as being a reasonably nice target for a simple compiler.
Inexpensive Raspberry Pi's run 32-bit ARM code, as well as natively supporting a complete compiler development tool set (lex, yak, bison, et.al.)
Almost every student is likely to possess a mobile phone that will also run ARM machine code, and both Apple and Google provide free development tools that allow coding portions of a mobile app (iOS or Android) in ARM assembly language.
The 6502 and 8051 ISAs were not designed for modern compiler output, even though otherwise suitable for teaching hand-coded assembly language and running it on inexpensive (vintage or microcontroller) hardware.
Dr Michelle Strout (now at University of Arizona) used this approach when she was at Colorado State University.
For hardware, the students used Meggy JR. Students were expected to write simple programs/games using a Java interface to the hardware. Initially, the hardware was purchased as kits and there was a pizza party to assemble it.
The students then wrote compilers for a subset of Java (MeggyJava), using Java. See class web page. The code their compiler created could be executed on the hardware, or in a simulator.
In another year, the students did the same project, See class web page, but the implementation language was in Haskell.
The students enjoyed creating simple games and displays and then using their compiler to realize the result on the physical hardware.
For grading, the course used our autograder to compare the "output" of the instructors compiler (i.e. what did the code do to the state of the Meggy JR when the code was executed on the simulator), to that of the code produced by their compiler.
I hope this helps.
If you want to look at hardware which might also be suitable for programming in C/C++, the BBC micro:bit might be a good alternative to an arduino. It has a more self-contained set of peripherals, and is programmed in ARM assembler. It uses drag-drop style programming (you need an ASCII format hex file) over USB. Of course, you need to set up a tool chain to compile the code, unless you want to write raw hex by hand (or analyse compiled code from the online tool chains). Halting debug (single step and modifying registers) is supported, so it's a capable platform to work on if you want hardware.
In terms of a compiler for Cortex-M0 (as in the micro:bit), the educational toolchains support an in-browser compiler which demonstrates that it's not actually too complicated.
Of course, there is a fair amount of initialisation required if you want to actually turn the LEDs on or look at the push buttons (let alone the SPI accelerometer on board). You might include some assembler within an online compiler C++ project - that ought to work (if you use the ARM mbed toolchain rather than the school specific toolchains).
An alternative is to look at something more low-level, using a verilog simulator (but there is non-trivial cost involved in the simulator which might put this out of reach to schools - it's more targeted at universities who are teaching embedded hardware, and start-ups). The whole Cortex-M3 processor and a supporting system can be downloaded from ARM for free. This runs code (and has a model which prints out disassembly as it runs). - disclaimer - I developed this product.
