| In the beginning, Drs. Barry Cook and Neil White, of Keele University, created Tiny Tim, a teaching processor designed to teach undergraduate students (primarily at Keele) the fundamentals of computer architecture. First released in 1998, it became integrated into the syllabus and has been ever since. In September 2000, a third-year undergraduate, Michael Alcock, undertook the redesign and enhancement of the Tiny Tim program as a final-year project. This became known as "Java Tiny Tim". However, three of the main purposes of the project were to rewrite the package in Java, develop a GUI front-end and write the code as such that it was easily perusable to those interested in the design of large Java programs. These targets were largely met, and the report was written, detailing the reasons and methods involved in its design and construction. However, after the project was submitted, Java Tiny Tim's author found that it lacked a comprehensive manual (the report being orientated towards its design and implementation rather than details of its use). Further to this, its code was much longer than necessary, the inefficiency of which was deliberate to make it easier to follow how the Java classes interacted with each other and worked. The result was that the same author reinstated the project, with two main goals in mind: to write a comprehensive manual, and to optimise Java Tiny Tim�s source code for speed and efficiency. The result was Java Tiny Tim Mark II, the package that accompanies this Manual. To avoid ambiguity, Tiny Tim Mark II was nicknamed "Big Tim", the second variation on the original theme. This Manual is also available in PDF format (albeit an obsolete and non-updated version), and on Keele University's Computer Science web site. Big Tim was initially completed in mid November, 2001, as the result of many hours, much patience and an interest in Java programming. In September 2001, another third-year finalist, Kerry Harthoorn, chose to enhance the package further and create a higher-level language based on the original Tiny Tim architecture, using Big Tim. This is due to be completed in July/August 2002. The Tiny Tim architecture is planned to be taught to Keele first-year undergraduates as from September, 2001. |
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