FPGA-Based Flash Memory Controller for BZK.SAU.FPGA10.1 Microcomputer Architecture Design as an Educational Tool

Operating systems and computer architecture andorganization course are fundamental topics underlying manydisciplines, including computer, electrical and electronicsengineering departments. These courses involve both atheoretical and practical part for the effective learning process.A FPGA-based micro computer architecture design namedBZK.SAU.FPGA10.1 was proposed to reinforce computerarchitecture and organization fundamentals in 2011. Also wedeveloped an educational operating system named BZK.SAUOSfrom scratch on BZK.SAU.FPGA10.1 architecture. Theprogram written using the user interface of this operatingsystem was saved to main memory of this microcomputerarchitecture since it does not have a nonvolatile memory unit. Sothe process of editing on a file previously written is notimpossible. This paper addresses an effective learning approachthat permits one to work on real computer architecture andoriginal operating system while supporting easily to save andedit their program using flash memory instead of main memory.The flash memory controller in this work have been designedcompletely hardware. So this controller allows the students toexamine the internal structure of this controller while improvingthe motivation in the control of storage units like flash memory,hard disk etc. Overall, this work helps the students to improvecontroller design experience of storage units in low-level inaddition to an increase in their learning process in the computerarchitecture and operating systems topics.