Glossary
Plain-language definitions of the computer architecture and low-level programming terms used across the site.
- ALU (arithmetic logic unit)
- The circuit inside the CPU that performs arithmetic and bitwise operations and produces the status flags.
- Instruction set architecture (ISA)
- The contract between software and hardware: the instructions, registers, data types and encodings a processor promises to support.
- Register
- A tiny, very fast storage slot inside the CPU that holds one value (8 to 64 bits) an instruction is working on.
- RFLAGS
- The x86-64 register whose individual bits (CF, ZF, SF, OF…) record the outcome of the last arithmetic or logic operation.
- System bus
- The set of wires that connects the CPU to memory and devices: an address bus, a data bus and a control bus.