As well as the basic, textual course material, we have introduced an experimental section, in which there is a simulation of a beadboard. A beadboard is a tool used to model the distribution of the output of a process. It is made up of a panel of regularly spaced pins, above a row of bead collectors. Beads are dropped into the board at the top, pass through the pin panel and end in one of the collectors at the bottom.

Our beadboard simulation runs as a small Java program, and includes a number of exercises, each designed to emphasise a particular topic which we shall be covering. You can run the beadboard or view the help files by clicking on the images at the right hand side of this page. There are also links to the beadboard applet and help files on the course homepage.