program counter
PROCESSOR REGISTER THAT INDICATES THE LOCATION IN MEMORY OF THE CURRENTLY-EXECUTING INSTRUCTION IN THE BINARY CODE OF A PROGRAM
Instruction pointer; Program Counter; Program register; Instruction address register; Programme counter; Instruction counter; Next instruction pointer; Current instruction pointer; Current instruction; Next instruction; Next instruction address; Next instruction pointer register; Instruction pointer register; Next instruction address register
<
hardware> (PC, or "
instruction address
register") A
register in the
central processing unit that contains the
addresss of the next
instruction to be executed. The PC is
automatically incremented after each
instruction is fetched to
point to the following
instruction. It is not normally
manipulated like an ordinary
register but instead, special
instructions are provided to alter the
flow of control by
writing a new value to the PC, e.g. JUMP, CALL,
RTS.
(1995-03-21)