  The design of Microprocessors Computer Architectures remains as a fundamental
course in Computer Science and Computer Engineering. The technology and
organization inside microprocessors have changed quite fast in the last twenty
years. That change has increased the information handled in class, difficulting
the teaching/learning process among students. Although there are tools, mainly
simulators, available to exemplify abstract concepts during the course, these
tools have not come along with the technology. The computer architecture group
of the Centro de Investigaci\'on en Computaci\'on at the IPN Mexico is working
on a project called Lagarto to create an open computing platform for research
and education to simplify the understanding of fundamental concepts involved in
computer architecture and operating systems. This paper introduces Lagarto, our
soft-core-processor micro-architecture. It has a scalar pipeline structure and
executes a full MIPS 32 R6 ISA [9] [10] and includes an MMU to support modern
Operative Systems. The complete design has been described using Verilog HDL and
is fully synthesizable in an FPGA. Additionally, this work shows different ways
to use and test the microprocessor with codes written in either assembly
language or C language. We show that the Lagarto project allows students to
incorporate during the course not only the traditional model of visualizing
theoretical knowledge in a practical exercise through simulators but also
integrate into the teaching process the RTL design to build the Microprocessor
Architecture.
