How are instructions sent to a CPU?

A CPU “receives” instructions from memory, by asking for them by address. The only commands a CPU “sends” (in the simplistic view, at least) are commands to the memory to deliver data, and commands on I/O buses, to operate I/O devices.

How does the CPU read machine code?

The CPU itself contains a so called instruction decoder, which reads the native binary number by number and for each opcode it reads it gives power to the circuit of the CPU that implement this particular opcode. there are opcodes, that address memory, opcodes that load data from memory into registers and so on.

How does a compiler translate programming language into the specific instruction set?

Compilers translate code all at once and the processor then executes upon the machine language that the compiler produced. If changes are made to the code after compilation, the changed code will need to be compiled and added to the compiled code (or perhaps the entire program will need to be re-compiled.)

How is the compiler working?

As we already know, the compiler converts high-level source code to low-level code. Then, the target machine executes low-level code. Converts high-level source code into intermediate code and executes it immediately. Explicitly executes stored precompiled code generated by a compiler.

How does a CPU understand assembly language?

Actually, CPUs don’t directly understand assembly language. Before feeding the CPU with instructions, the assembly code must be converted to binary by an assembler. Assuming a fixed instruction size architecture, each assembly instruction will be translated into a known number of zeroes and ones.

How is two’s complement translated to machine code?

Since Two’s complement is used, the compiler can just rewrite x = x – 5 to x = -5 + x or x = 0xFB + x. Since those three instructions shown above are located in code memory one after the other, we are able to translate them into machine code:

What are machine language instructions in a CPU?

In the CPU, machine language instructions (bit patterns) by physical design correspond to actions the CPU must take. The CPU doesn’t have to interpret or “think” about anything, it just carries out the machine instructions exactly.

What is the role of the compiler in C programming?

The compiler translates our C code into an interpretable byte-stream saved to (code-) memory / ROM. The CPU parses the byte sequence and executes the desired operation.