Processor register

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A processor register is a quickly accessible storage location available to a computer's processor. It is a register, typically consisting of flip-flops, that provides a small amount of fast storage. Some registers have specific hardware functions when accessed, and may be read-only or write-only. Almost all computers load data items from a larger memory into registers where they are used for arithmetic operations, bitwise operations, and other operations, and manipulated or tested by machine instructions. The data resulting from such operations are often stored in the same or different registers, or back to main memory. Processor registers are normally at the top of the memory hierarchy, and provide the fastest way to access data. The term normally refers only to the group of registers that are directly encoded as part of an instruction, as defined by the instruction set. However, modern high-performance CPUs often have duplicates of these "architectural registers" in order to improve performance...

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