Anand Classes offers an in-depth study of computer registers, programming models, and microoperations tailored for GATE, PSU, IES, and B.Tech (IITs/NITs) aspirants.
Computer Registers
The Computer Registers are primarily used to store data temporarily during the execution of a program. Some of the registers are accessible to the user through instructions. A set of storage locations (registers) for storing temporary results is called a register file.
Early machines had just one register — usually termed an accumulator. For doing arithmetical or logical operations, an ALU needs certain temporary memory locations where data may be kept temporarily. Such memory locations built in the ALU are called its registers.
What is the Programming Model of a Processor?
The programming model of a processor defines the registers within the processor which are visible and programmable by the user. These include:
- Accumulator
- General Purpose Registers
- Flag (Condition Code or Status) Register
- Program Counter or Instruction Pointer
- Stack Register
Accumulator
A processor register (Accumulator – AC) is required for storing data and doing arithmetic and logic operations on data. This register is generally referred to as Register AC. The result of an arithmetic or logical operation is automatically stored in this register.
The processor consists of one or more accumulators (internal storage locations, also known as registers) which are used for data storage. The majority of instructions deal with transferring data between memory and the accumulators. Data is manipulated once in the accumulators.
General Purpose Registers
The general purpose registers may be used for temporarily storing data. These registers may be combined to form register pairs in order to handle larger-size data. General purpose registers are also known as programmable registers as they may be programmed by the user with the help of instructions.
The processor consists of a large bank of registers which can be used in most of the available addressing modes (as index or data registers). All registers are of the same size, and the majority of instructions deal with the manipulation of registers.
Status Register
The status register, also called the flag register, holds 1-bit flags to indicate certain conditions that arise during arithmetic and logical operations. The important conditions shown by flag or status registers are:
- Carry – Indicates whether there is overflow or not.
- Zero – Indicates whether the result is zero or non-zero.
- Sign – Indicates whether the result is positive or negative.
- Parity – Indicates whether the result contains an odd or even number of 1s.
Program Counter (PC)
The Program Counter (PC) is a register that deals with the execution order of instructions. It acts like a pointer, indicating the subsequent memory location where the next instruction is stored.
After one instruction is executed, the program counter gets incremented by one to indicate the memory location of the next instruction in the serial order.
Stack Pointer (SP)
The Stack Pointer (SP) is an indicator to a set of memory locations known as the stack. Stack memory locations are used by a microprocessor for storing data temporarily during the execution of a program.
Other Registers in a Basic Computer
For the basic computer, we also consider the following registers:
- Data Register (DR): Holds data
- Instruction Register (IR): Stores the instruction
- Address Register (AR): Holds the address of a memory word
- Temporary Register (TR): Holds temporary data during processing
- Input Register (INPR): Holds data from input devices like keyboard
- Output Register (OUTR): Holds data to be sent to output devices like monitor or printer
All these registers hold data temporarily. In addition, we require a memory unit and control unit.
Program Execution Process
The basic function performed by a computer is program execution. The program consists of a set of instructions stored in memory. The CPU does the actual work by executing these instructions.
The CPU fetches instructions from memory one at a time and executes each instruction. Program execution consists of repeating the process of instruction fetch and instruction execution.
What are the Functions of Computer Registers?
The basic components of a computer system describe a digital system from the operational level. The operation is best described by specifying:
- The set of registers in the system and their functions.
- The binary-coded information stored in the registers.
- The operations performed on the information stored in the registers.
- The control functions that initiate the sequence of operations.
These four components form the basis of the register-transfer logic method for describing digital systems.
Register Definition and Usage
Registers are electronic devices that temporarily hold values in the form of 1s and 0s. They are temporary storage units that keep both data and instructions in binary form.
A register, as defined in register-transfer logic notation, implies not only a storage but also includes:
- Shift Registers
- Counters
- Memory Units
For example:
- A counter is a register that increments the stored value by 1.
- A memory unit is a collection of storage registers.
- A flip-flop is a 1-bit register.
Types of Data in Registers
The binary information stored in registers may be:
- Binary numbers
- Binary-coded decimal numbers
- Alphanumeric characters
- Control information
- Any other binary-coded information
Operations on Registers (Microoperations)
Operations performed on register data are called microoperations. A microoperation is an elementary operation that can be performed in parallel during one clock pulse period.
The result may either:
- Replace the previous information in the same register
- Be transferred to another register
Examples of Microoperations:
- Shift
- Count
- Add
- Clear
- Load
- A counter with parallel load can perform increment and load.
- A bidirectional shift register performs shift-right and shift-left.
- A binary parallel adder implements the add microoperation on contents of two registers.
A microoperation usually requires one clock pulse if executed in parallel. In serial computers, a microoperation may require multiple pulses — equal to the number of bits in the shift registers.
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