This is vital component of the central processing unit and controls all the activities of computer system. Its role is to decode and execute instructions one at a time. An instruction is a command executed by the processor. There are two basic types of instructions. One is operation instructions. They perform operation on the operands. These instructions must define both the operand involved either explicitly or implicitly. Explicitly operands are defined by the programmer as operands or operand addresses in the instruction field. The implicit operands are fixed by the processor designer and in this case there s no freedom of choice for the programmer. The second is control instructions. They modify the normal sequence of operation in the program. It can be said that such instructions control the flow through the program.
Normally a program is executed in sequence that is the next instruction is obtained by adding 1 to the contents of the program counter which stores the address of the instructions to be executed. The subsequent instruction is always placed immediately in the instructions register after the one being executed. However control orders can conditionally or unconditionally change this sequence. With this the program can jump back to the previously executed code or can jump over some unexecuted piece of code.
Normally a program is executed in sequence that is the next instruction is obtained by adding 1 to the contents of the program counter which stores the address of the instructions to be executed. The subsequent instruction is always placed immediately in the instructions register after the one being executed. However control orders can conditionally or unconditionally change this sequence. With this the program can jump back to the previously executed code or can jump over some unexecuted piece of code.