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computer architecture, programming language, and
operating system becomes difficult. To overcome the
previous difficulty, we propose a methodology for stu-
dents to learn systems-level details with a tool called
MMVM. Unlikely existing researches and software
systems, our methodology is based on the implemen-
tation of a virtual machine instead of using existing
ones. We conducted a preliminary evaluation in terms
of learning in which we offer 15 under/graduate stu-
dents to implement a virtual machine. As a result,
we found two observations. Firstly, all students could
implement a disassembler for all programs, the kinds
of them varies from just invoking printf to using func-
tions, arguments and control statements (e.g., for, if)
and system calls, generating various kinds of 8086’s
instruction. Secondly, all students could execute 8 of
9 programs in the virtual machine and only one stu-
dent executed all of them. Through these observa-
tions, we realized that students could learn system-
level details such as assembly language, computer ar-
chitecture, and operating systems as real skills. This
is because if they did not understand these details,
they could not finish to implement a disassembler and
a virtual machine. Thereby we can claim that our
methodology could address the two problems men-
tioned in this paper: lack of experiences and compre-
hensive understanding in system-level details, leading
to improving students’ knowledge and skills.
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