program counter

program counter

[′prō·grəm ‚kau̇nt·ər]

(computer science)

instruction counter

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

program counter

(hardware)

(PC, or "instruction address register") A register in the central processing unit that contains the addresss of the next instruction to be executed. The PC is automatically incremented after each instruction is fetched to point to the following instruction. It is not normally manipulated like an ordinary register but instead, special instructions are provided to alter the flow of control by writing a new value to the PC, e.g. JUMP, CALL, RTS.

This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)

program counter

A register in the control unit of the CPU that is used to keep track of the address of the current or next instruction. Typically, the program counter is advanced to the next instruction, and then the current instruction is executed. Also known as a "sequence control register" and the "instruction pointer." See address register and instruction register.

Copyright © 1981-2025 by The Computer Language Company Inc. All Rights reserved. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.