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Registers work like variables in computer code, but they are hard-wired and very fast. Actual variables are stored in RAM, and it is much faster for the CPU to access its own registers than to access RAM. CPU registers are the temporary areas in which software runs in the CPU. The majority of CPU operations are done using the registers.

There are also special registers which are usually not directly accessed by user code. There is a flags register, and that is what returns the status of operations so the CPU can easily know if a result was zero, overflowed, carried, etc.

There is an Instruction Pointer register which lets the CPU know where it is when executing code. That is not user editable, but user code certainly changes it by design.

There is a Stack Pointer (SP) register, at least in PC compatible CPUs. The stack is an area of memory set aside for storing things from registers using the PUSH instruction. The POP instruction restores values into registers from memory. The SP register records where in the stack the next stack operation is to take place. The Call and Return instructions also use the stack to know where to come back to, and software uses the stack to pass parameters between functions and subroutines. So SP is a very important register.

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