➢ A computer register is a small, high-speed storage unit within the CPU of a computer.

It is
used to hold data, instructions, memory addresses or control signals that are being
manipulated by the CPU.
➢ Registers play a crucial role in various computer operations such as arithmetic calculations,
logic operations, data movement and control flow. They provide quick access to data and
significantly improve the speed of and efficiency of the overall computing process.
➢ Register are typically built using flip flops A flip flop is a fundamental building block
or other electronic circuitry and are used for storing binary data. They serve as
categorized based on their specific functionality building blocks for constructing larger
complex circuits, including registers, counters
such as general-purpose registers, special- and memory units.
purpose registers, program counters and
many more.
➢ The size and number of registers can vary depending on the computer architecture and
processor design. Common register sizes include 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit or 64-bit which define
the amount of data that can be stored in a single register at a time.

Register sizes refers to the number of bits

that a register can hold representing the
maximum amount of data that can be stored
in a single register. The size is specified in
terms of the number of bits such as 8-bit, 16-
bit, 32-bit and 64-bit registers.

➢ There are various types of registers in a computer system. They include:

➢ These registers store data during processing operations. They can be further categorized
into general-purpose registers (used for temporary storage and calculations) and specific-
purpose registers (designed for specific operations such as arithmetic and logic).

➢ Address registers hold memory addresses. They are used for accessing and manipulating
data stored in memory.
➢ The program counter keeps track of the address of the next instruction to be executed. It
helps in sequential program execution.

➢ The instruction register holds the currently fetched instruction from memory. It contains the
opcode and any associated operands.

➢ The memory address register stores the address of the memory location being accessed for
read or write operations.

➢ The memory buffer register temporarily holds data being transferred between the C.P.U and
memory.

➢ The accumulator is a special register used for arithmetic and logical operations. It stores
intermediate results and final results of computations.

➢ Control register is used to store control information for various operations such as enabling
or disabling specific functionalities or configuring system settings.

➢ Index registers are used for indexing or accessing data structures and arrays by storing
offsets or indices.

➢ The stack pointer indicates the top of the stack in memory. It is used for managing a stack
and facilitating function calls and returns.

➢ The status or flags register holds various flags that indicate the status or outcome of specific
operations such as carry, zero, overflow or interrupt flags.