Processor register

Transistor count over time, demonstrating Moore's law

Quickly accessible location available to a computer's processor.

- Processor register

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Instruction set architecture

Instruction set architecture , also called computer architecture, is an abstract model of a computer.

One instruction may have several fields, which identify the logical operation, and may also include source and destination addresses and constant values. This is the MIPS "Add Immediate" instruction, which allows selection of source and destination registers and inclusion of a small constant.

In general, an ISA defines the supported instructions, data types, registers, the hardware support for managing main memory, fundamental features (such as the memory consistency, addressing modes, virtual memory), and the input/output model of a family of implementations of the ISA.

Memory address

Reference to a specific memory location used at various levels by software and hardware.

In a computer using virtual memory, accessing the location corresponding to a memory address may involve many levels.

Generally only system software, i.e. the BIOS, operating systems, and some specialized utility programs (e.g., memory testers), address physical memory using machine code operands or processor registers, instructing the CPU to direct a hardware device, called the memory controller, to use the memory bus or system bus, or separate control, address and data busses, to execute the program's commands.

Computer architecture

Set of rules and methods that describe the functionality, organization, and implementation of computer systems.

Block diagram of a basic computer with uniprocessor CPU. Black lines indicate data flow, whereas red lines indicate control flow. Arrows indicate the direction of flow.

Instruction set architecture (ISA): defines the machine code that a processor reads and acts upon as well as the word size, memory address modes, processor registers, and data type.

8-bit computing

In computer architecture, 8-bit integers or other data units are those that are 8 bits wide (1 octet).

Block diagram of a basic computer with uniprocessor CPU. Black lines indicate data flow, whereas red lines indicate control flow. Arrows indicate the direction of flow.

Also, 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) architectures are those that are based on registers or data buses of that size.

Assembly language

Any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence between the instructions in the language and the architecture's machine code instructions.

Assembly language usually has one statement per machine instruction (1:1), but constants, comments, assembler directives, symbolic labels of, e.g., memory locations, registers, and macros are generally also supported.

64-bit computing

In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 64 bits wide.

Block diagram of a basic computer with uniprocessor CPU. Black lines indicate data flow, whereas red lines indicate control flow. Arrows indicate the direction of flow.

Also, 64-bit CPUs and ALUs are those that are based on processor registers, address buses, or data buses of that size.

Processor (computing)

Electrical component that performs operations on an external data source, usually memory or some other data stream.

Transistor count over time, demonstrating Moore's law

If based on the von Neumann architecture, they contain at least a control unit (CU), an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), and processor registers.

Memory hierarchy

In computer architecture, the memory hierarchy separates computer storage into a hierarchy based on response time.

Diagram of the computer memory hierarchy
Memory hierarchy of an AMD Bulldozer server.

Internal – Processor registers and cache.

Accumulator (computing)

Walther WSR-16 mechanical calculator. The row of digit-wheels in the carriage (at the front), is the Accumulator.
Front panel of an IBM 701 computer with lights displaying the accumulator and other registers

In a computer's central processing unit (CPU), the accumulator is a register in which intermediate arithmetic logic unit results are stored.

SPARC

Reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture originally developed by Sun Microsystems.

A Sun UltraSPARC II microprocessor (1997)

The SPARC processor usually contains as many as 160 general-purpose registers.