Processing Programs

Question 1

How do computers process a program? (4 steps)

Answer 1

1. Fetch
2. Decode
3. Execute
4. Writeback

Question 2

What is a program counter?

Answer 2

Also called IP, contains the address of the location of the instruction being executed at current time

Question 3

What is a register?

Answer 3

a small set of data holding place that the processor uses.

Question 4

What is an instruction register?

Answer 4

Part of the CPU’s control unit holding the instruction currently being executed; it holds it while its getting decoded

Question 5

What is an ALU?

Answer 5

arithmetic logic unit; a digital circuit used to perform arithmetic and logic operations; fundamental part of CPU

Question 6

Memory Address

Answer 6

primary storage memory space; fixed sequences of digits that has a physical location; CPU uses this address to access

Question 7

What are the initial steps of the program?

Answer 7

1. Program loaded from disk
   to RAM
2. Load instruction from RAM to CPU

Question 8

What happens after memory content is loaded into a register in order to load the next instruction?

Answer 8

Program Counter increases

Question 9

Program counter points to what?

Answer 9

Memory address for next set of instructions