In this paper, we present an educational processor developed at An-Najah

National University. This processor has been designed to be a powerful

supplement for computer architecture and organization courses offered at the

university. The project is intended to develop an easily applicable methodology

by which students get a valuable experience in designing and implementing

complete processor with simple readily available off-the-shelf components. The

proposed methodology is beneficial to computer engineering students enrolled

at universities, specially in developing countries, where advanced laboratory

equipments are rarely available. The design philosophy is to build a generalpurpose

processor using simple and wide spread integrated circuits. This

methodology includes: defining an instruction set, datapath layout, ALU

implementation, memory interface, controller design and implementation. For

testing and evaluation purposes, a debugging tool is also built and implemented

to serially connect the processor to a personal computer. In this paper, we

present the methods and components used in the design and implementation

phases and the tools developed to complete the design process. This

methodology has shown that students enrolled in the computer architecture

course get the full experience in processor design without the need for advanced

laboratory equipments. The components used are cost efficient and methods

proposed allow students to work at home, hence, this methodology has proven

to be cost effective and yet very educational.