Teaching computer architecture in a PC equipped lab using Turbo and Sun assembly language

Cadets at the US Military Academy majoring in computer science or computer engineering take an introductory computer architecture course. In contrast to your traditional architecture course, ours is taught in a PC equipped classroom. Cadets learn the basic organization and internal functioning of an IBM PC by employing Turbo Assembler. Important teaching points can be emphasized by having cadets step though an assembly language program while observing the various changes in the registers and status flags. By studying the control flow of actual programs, cadets gain a better appreciation of the data flow, timing and control necessary to execute a program. The goal of the course is to gain an understanding of the importance of assembly language and its relationship to a computer´s architecture, not to make cadets experts in assembly language programming