What does the program counter store?
It stores the memory address of the next instruction
What does the Status Register store?
It holds info about the state of the processor
What does the address register store?
It holds the address of the memory location to be read or written to
What does the stack pointer store?
The address of the most recent value pushed onto the stack
What does the accumulator store?
The result of the most recent arithmetic or logical operation
What is the first step in the fetch execute cycle?
PC is incremented
What is the second step in the fetch execute cycle?
PC is copied to MAR
What is the third step in the fetch execute cycle?
Data in location specified by MAR copied to MDR (the MBR)
What is the fourth step in the fetch execute cycle?
The instruction register gets data from MDR and splits into opcode and operand
What is the fith step in the fetch execute cycle?
Operand is processed with opcode
How does the control unit decode the opcode?
It turns the code into very primitive actions
What is a process?
A running program such as the OS
What is a context switch?
How the CPU switches the program that it is executing on a core level.
Why are threads referred to as light weight?
As they allow the CPU to change what it is executing without exiting the current process, which is very slow.
What are processes referred to as?
Heavy weight as a lot needs to happen for them to be changed.
