Exploration ·
Start with one transistor switching an LED, wire switches into gates, gates into an adder, feedback into memory, and memory plus a clock into a tiny CPU — then watch a real 6502 run a program you can read byte by byte.
Tool ·
Write 8086 assembly in NASM syntax and step through it as a DOS .COM program: every instruction's bytes split into prefix, opcode, ModR/M, displacement and immediate with each field explained, registers and flags with changes highlighted, segment:offset addresses with the 20-bit physical address, Intel's clock count for every instruction (8086 or 8088), an 80 × 25 colour text screen at B800:0000, BIOS and DOS interrupts, and the keyboard.
Tool ·
Write Cortex-M assembly and step through it on a simulated microcontroller: a GNU-syntax assembler for Thumb and Thumb-2 with literal pools and IT blocks, every 16- and 32-bit encoding split into its fields bit by bit, registers and NZCV with changes highlighted, memory and stack views, breakpoints, LEDs and switches on GPIO, a UART terminal, SysTick interrupts through a vector table, and Cortex-M0 or M3 cycle counts.
Tool ·
Write RV32IM assembly and step through it: an assembler with pseudo-instructions and %hi/%lo, the machine code beside each line with every format's fields decoded bit by bit, registers with changes highlighted, memory and stack views, breakpoints, RARS-style ecalls, LEDs and switches on a memory-mapped device, and a 5-stage pipeline diagram of what ran, with stalls, forwarding and flushes.
Tool ·
Build digital circuits by dragging gates, switches, clocks, LEDs and 7-segment displays, watch the signals light up, and go further with flip-flops, counters, adders, an ALU, RAM and ROM, your own sub-circuits, truth tables with minimised expressions, expression-to-circuit, a timing diagram with real gate delays, and a tiny CPU that runs a program.