Back in college my lecturers used something called a “Little Man Computer” (LMC), which was simplified concept of a modern computer, in order to teach assembly code. So it was pretty interesting to receive an e-mail in my mailbox last week regarding a brand new app on the App Store called 4917emu by developer Michael Mustun.
4917emu is based on the 4917 microprocessor (a hypothetical designed just for a computer course named COMP1917 at the University of New South Wales) which was used to teach microprocessor basics. It is 4bit, has 16 memory locations and 4 registers: Instruction Pointer (IP), Instruction Store (IS), General Register 0 (R0) and General Register 1 (R1). Each memory location can store a number between 0 and 15, and there are 16 instructions.
I’m always for teaching tools on iOS devices and this might be a great addition to classroom curriculum. Back in the day, all I had were pen and paper to write down the procedures for the LMC. 4917emu is available on the App Store for free for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Check it out over here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/4917emu/id572103567?mt=8
