regísters

Registers are small, fast storage locations inside a computer’s processor or a microcontroller that hold data, addresses, and control information during instruction execution. They are the fastest memory in a typical system and form the processor’s immediate working set, enabling rapid arithmetic, data movement, and decision making.

In most architectures, registers are organized into a register file consisting of general‑purpose registers (GPRs) for data and arithmetic, and special‑purpose registers that have fixed roles in sequencing and state management. Common examples include the program counter or instruction pointer, which holds the address of the next instruction; the stack pointer, which marks the top of the call stack; and status or flag registers, which reflect outcomes of operations (such as zero, carry, sign, or overflow). Some architectures also include index, base, or segment registers for addressing and memory organization, as well as floating‑point or vector registers for specific data types.

Registers can be inside the CPU core or exposed as memory‑mapped or I/O registers in peripherals. In memory‑mapped I/O, device control and status are accessed through fixed addresses using load and store operations, which makes registers central to device communication.

In programming and compiler design, registers are a precious resource. Register allocation aims to map frequently used values to a small number of registers to reduce slower memory accesses and improve performance. The exact set and roles of registers vary by architecture, with common examples including x86, ARM, and RISC architectures.

Overall, registers are a fundamental component of a computer’s data path, linking the processor’s control logic, arithmetic units, and memory systems to execute instructions efficiently.