Register refers to an official list of names and other important details during gatherings, public occasions, company happenings, and other informational circumstances. The term may also pertain to a book that stores information in an organized way, usually with an index. Register can be used for both print and digital copy depending on industry preference and specific use cases. A good register will follow a standard paper size, and must have all necessary elements to ensure it works well in either format.
In general, registering something involves placing your name on an official list in order to gain access to that event or service. For example, thousands of people line up to vote in a local election by registering at their polling station. Similarly, a person who wants to rent a home or car must register their name with the landlord or property owner.
The word register can also be used in a figurative sense, meaning that an event or feeling is made known to someone else. For instance, if someone’s surprise at Rodney’s proposal is registered on her face, it means she’s clearly seen the moment. It can also be said that someone’s dissatisfaction with the current government is registering on their ballot.
A register can also be a piece of hardware that holds a number that can be added to (or subtracted from) the address portion of a computer instruction to form an effective address. In microcomputers, this is commonly called the memory buffer register or MBR.
Computer registers are part of the CPU, and store instructions, addresses, data and results in tiny, quickly-retrievable chunks that can be passed on to the next stage of processing. They are not to be confused with caches, which are external devices that can hold data for fast access.
In computers, there are three main types of registers: the accumulator register, the address register and the program counter. The accumulator register is the general-purpose register; the initial data to be processed and the intermediate and final result of an operation are stored in it. The accumulator register is represented by the symbol AC.
The program counter is a special purpose register that keeps track of the program’s current execution status. The counter is incremented each time an instruction is executed, and the value of the program counter represents the location in memory where the next instruction will be found. The program counter is represented by the symbol PC. The work stack is another type of register. It is used to temporarily store data that’s being sent to or from a peripheral device, and is represented by the symbol MBR. Unlike the other two types of registers, the work stack is not addressed by the processor.