Oxford International School

Computer Science
Computer architecture

Register: Register is the smallest storage area for storing data/value. It’s rate of speed it very high.

Names of registers:

MDR – Memory data register.

Purpose – To hold data/ instructions.

MAR – Memory address register.

Purpose – It holds the address of data/instructions.

PC – Program counters.
Purpose – It holds the address/value and increment by one for fetching nest instruction.

CIR – Current instruction register.

Purpose – To hold the current instruction.

ACC – Accumulator.
Purpose – It holds the input and output value. It is one of the registers of ALU.

Types component:

ALU – Arithmetic and logic unit.

Purpose – It performs arithmetical operations, such as, addition, subtraction, etc. and logical
operations, such as, AND, OR, NOT, etc.

Loop structure:

• FOR … NEXT
• REPEAT … UNTIL
• WHILE … DO … ENDWHILE
Loop – Group of instructions that would be executed repeatedly until a certain condition is met.

Function memory – It has two partitions – address and content. It uses two registers – MAR and
MDR for storing address and data. It is used to store part of the operating system and instructions
which is currently being run.

Control unit – To control and coordinate the components of the CPU by sending controls using the
control bus. It controls the input and output devices, processors, etc. It also controls operations like
read, write, interrupt signal.

Program counter – It is used in control units.