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Fetch Decode and Execute Cycle

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10 views2 pages

Fetch Decode and Execute Cycle

Uploaded by

charlandrob
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Fetch, Decode-Execute Cycle:

What is a computer:
 A computer is an electronic device that takes input, processes data and delivers
output.
 To process data, a computer follows a set of instructions, known as a program.

Fetch Stage:
 The program counter is checked, as it holds the address of the next instruction to be
executed.
 The address store is then copied into the memory address register (MAR).
 The address is then sent along the address bus to main memory, where it waits to
receive a signal from the control bus.
 As we want to read the data stored in the memory address, the control unit sends a
read signal along the control bus to main memory.
 The contents stored in the desired memory address can now be sent along the data
bus to the memory data register.
 The data received by the memory data register from memory now gets copied into
the current instruction register.
 We now increment the contents of the program counter so the address it contains
points to the next instruction to be executed.

Decode Stage:
 This is the stage where the instruction held in the current instruction register is now
decoded by the decode unit.
 The instruction is made up of two parts:
o Opcode: What to do
o Operand: What to do it to
 The operand could contain the data or an address where the data is found.
 We decode the instruction, and compare the instruction with what to do. E.g. a load
instruction.
 If it was a load instruction, we need to load the contents of the memory location into
the CPU’s accumulator.
 We send the memory locations address to the memory address register.
 We then send the address down the address bus to main memory.
 We want to read the data stored in the memory address, so the control unit sends a
read signal along the control bus to main memory.
 The contents stored in memory at the address can now be sent along the data bus to
the memory data register.
 The contents of the memory data register are now copied to the accumulator. The
instruction is now complete.
Branching:
 In the current instruction register, we have an instruction that means branch always.
 This replaces the value held in the program counter with the contents of the operand
from the current instruction register.
 When the next fetch cycle begins, the program counter is checked.
 As its contents have been previously updated to a new memory location and not
simply incremented, the program can jump around memory.

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