Microprocessors: from theory to practice, a didactic experience

The study of microprocessors in computer or electronic engineering programs faces a great problem: the migration from theory to practice, from the abstract concepts to laboratory experimentation. In this work we present the learning methodology adopted by us in the last years in the microprocessor course. In this methodology the student is driven from the classroom theory to laboratory experimentation. Several tools are applied, as the hardware description language for microcomputers systems modeling and FPGA implementations, microcontroller experiments based on proto-o-board assemblies and more complex microprocessor applications based on electronics kits previously developed in the computer engineering program. This methodology applied in this course has been gradually improved through the time, and the improvement process continues, although we believe to have reached a format that integrates theory and practice, where the students have control of the process, involving microprocessors and its applications.