What is a processor register?

The fastest access to storable memory in a computer processing unit (CPU) is a processor register. The computer architecture design processor records memory capacity in a CPU cache so that values ​​that are accessed by computing processes on a regular basis can be stored there. Processes can quickly access and execute based on these stored values. Because processor registers are stored in the CPU, they are considered the top of the storage memory hierarchy, and the allocation is usually determined by variables. Once the data is processed, it is restored to cache, random access memory (RAM), or hard disk storage.

A central processing unit.

Computer processors have registers of different types, according to instructions or tests that operate on them or according to their specific content. Data, addresses, and general purpose registers contain mathematical values ​​and addresses to store in memory. There are conditional registers with truth values ​​for logical operational instructions, constant registers with read-only values ​​such as pi and zero, and special registers that contain a program counter, status register, and stack pointers to stack memory. use. . Control registers contain instructions from an instruction set built into the architecture of the CPU; and there are various CPU and RAM fetching circuits that access memory buffers, memory data, memory type ranges, and addresses. Variables not assigned to a processor register are stored in RAM and loaded and fetched for read and write operations; however, they have slower processing.

Knowing the difference in speed between processing in registers and RAM, compiler software developers often design their programs to operate as much as possible on the processor’s register storage for operational functions quickly. For just-in-time build programs, a register allocation technique known as linear scan allocation keeps track of register operations and releases register computing power back to the program quickly. Record allocation techniques attempt to get the largest number of program variables assigned to the records and in a flow of operation that maximizes the fewest number of records for fast compilation.

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Since many processor registers are for temporary storage of variables and instruction sets, all operations for use by the program can be stored for manipulation by the CPU. In operation, a CPU will first look in the CPU register cache for a copy of the data to be processed in read, write, or move operations, before looking in RAM and secondary storage on hard drives. . In 2011, most CPUs maintained three individual caches. Instruction caches handle execution-by-instruction lookups, a translation-like buffer speeds up address translations from virtual to physical addresses, and a data cache maintains a multi-level hierarchical store of data to be handled by a user. processor register instruction set.

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