- Program Counter
For one complete execution of instruction, CPU fetches the instructions from memory and then decode it and then execute it in the way in which programmer wished. Program counter actually directs the CPU to next instruction and it has nothing to do with rest of the processes which CPU performs. Program Counter is abbreviated as PC.
Program Counter is consisted of a counter circuit. The counter circuit used in Program Counter is of very special type. Actually, This counter is designed in such a way that it can count up, it can count down, it can jump one unit up, it can jump one unit down, it can also jump to any specified number to which a programmer wish.
Counters are made up of T-Flip Flops, and it is also easy to design them to count up or down BUT how to design them to JUMP???
YES! the answer is that, such a counter can be made by using an another sub part with it which is called FULL-ADDER. Thus we would need a full adder to implement such a counter which can JUMP to any specified number. For example, if present counting number is 1 and i wish to JUMP to 5 then i would add 4 to the present counting number and i would get the required result from the output of the full adder. That is it! So simple!
More on that in Next post, Enjoy!
