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A program in machine code consists of a sequence of machine instructions (possibly interspersed with data). [1] Each machine code instruction causes the CPU to perform a specific task. Examples of such tasks include: Load a word from memory to a CPU register; Execute an arithmetic logic unit (ALU) operation on one or more registers or memory ...
Execution in computer and software engineering is the process by which a computer or virtual machine interprets and acts on the instructions of a computer program. Each instruction of a program is a description of a particular action which must be carried out, in order for a specific problem to be solved. Execution involves repeatedly following ...
The instruction cycle (also known as the fetch–decode–execute cycle, or simply the fetch–execute cycle) is the cycle that the central processing unit (CPU) follows from boot-up until the computer has shut down in order to process instructions. It is composed of three main stages: the fetch stage, the decode stage, and the execute stage.
Flowchart of using successive subtractions to find the greatest common divisor of number r and s. In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm (/ ˈ æ l ɡ ə r ɪ ð əm / ⓘ) is a finite sequence of mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. [1]
The first was the CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer), which had many different instructions. In the 1970s, however, places like IBM did research and found that many instructions in the set could be eliminated. The result was the RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer), an architecture that uses a smaller set of instructions.
Depending on the OS, a process may be made up of multiple threads of execution that execute instructions concurrently. [1] [2] While a computer program is a passive collection of instructions typically stored in a file on disk, a process is the execution of those instructions after being loaded from the disk into memory. Several processes may ...
Such questions are impossible to answer (in the way asked), because the very categories of consciousness derive from human experience. To understand alien life forms, we must think in alien ways.
Data exists in three states: data at rest, data in transit and data in use. Data within a computer, in most cases, moves as parallel data. Data moving to or from a computer, in most cases, moves as serial data. Data sourced from an analog device, such as a temperature sensor, may be converted to digital using an analog-to-digital converter.