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What is the purpose of the CPU?
To process data and instructions by constantly repeating the FDE cycle
What are the steps of the FDE cycle?
Fetch - causes the next instruction and any data involved to be fetched from main memory
Decode - decodes (understands) the instruction
Execute - the instruction is executed (processed/carried out)
The process/cycle is then repeated
What is the function of the control unit?
to direct/coordinate the CPU’s operation such as the timing of other CPU parts
receives signals from the system clock and sends timing signals and control signals to other CPU parts such as RAM and ALU
to decode and execute instructions
What is the purpose of the ALU?
to carry out arithmetic calculations and logic operations
What is the purpose of the PC?
to hold the address of the next instruction to be executed
incremented by 1 as soon as that instruction has been fetched
What is the purpose of the ACC?
to temporarily store arithmetic and logic results from the ALU
What is a register?
a temporary storage place for one instruction or address
What is the purpose of the MAR?
To copy and hold the address of the instruction to be executed from the PC
What is the purpose of the MDR?
To fetch the instruction at the address in MAR from memory and to copy it to the MDR where it is held
the CU will decode that instruction and decide of any data needs to be fetched
if so, the MAR holds the address of the data
the data is fetched and copied to MDR
What are the key features of Von Neumann architecture?
program instructions and data the programs are using are both stored in the same memory
CPU accesses both instructions and data from the same RAM
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