Von Neumann Architecture
Computer Science: OCR GCSE, topic 1.1.3
Von Neumann Architecture
Registers that have a predetermined purpose in the central processing unit are known as special purpose registers.
Program Counter (PC)
- The PC holds the memory location address of the next instruction to be performed by the CPU.
Accumulator (ACC)
- The ACC holds the result of calculations and operations performed by the arithmetic logic unit (ALU).
Memory Address Register (MAR)
- The MAR holds the address of the location in memory where data is to be retrieved or stored.
Memory Data Register (MDR)
- The MDR holds the data that has been retrieved from memory, or that is about to be stored in memory.
Test yourself on Von Neumann Architecture
What is the purpose of the program counter?
In which register is the output of the arithmetic and logic unit stored?