Glossary

Plain-language definitions of SEO terms used across the blog.

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.