register

(computer science) The computer hardware for storing one machine word.
(communications) Part of an automatic switching telephone system which receives and stores the dialing pulses which control the further operations necessary in establishing a telephone connection.
(engineering) Also known as registration. The accurate matching or superimposition of two or more images, such as the three color images on the screen of a color television receiver, or the patterns on opposite sides of a printed circuit board, or the colors of a design on a printed sheet. The alignment of positions relative to a specified reference or coordinate, such as hole alignments in punched cards, or positioning of images in an optical character recognition device.
(graphic arts) Exact agreement in the position of printed material on both sides of a sheet or on all pages of a book or pamphlet. Exact overprinting of colorplates, or other subsequent plates, so that all printed detail is correctly combined; proper color overprinting is checked by the exact superimposition of the register marks that are printed with each color run. In flat preparation, the exact agreement between color or complementary flats.
(mechanical engineering) The portion of a burner which directs the flow of air used in the combustion process.
(ordnance) To adjust fire on a visible point, called a check point, and compute accurate adjusted data so that firing data for later targets may be computed with reference to that check point. To adjust fire on several selected points in order that they may serve later as auxiliary targets.

A small, high-speed computer circuit that holds values of internal operations, such as the address of the instruction being executed and the data being processed. When a program is debugged, register contents may be analyzed to determine the computer's status at the time of failure.

In microcomputer assembly language programming, programmers look at the contents of registers routinely. Assembly languages in larger computers are often at a higher level.

Download Computer Desktop Encyclopedia to your iPhone/iTouch