Machine cycle
What is the machine cycle? 4 steps that processors follow to execute program instructions.
Step 1 The control unit fetches the instruction from the memory
Step 2 The control unit decodes the instruction and directs the necessary data to the ALU
Steps 1 and 2 are called: instruction time or I-time
Step 3 The ALU executes the arithmetic or logical instruction.
Step 4 The ALU stores the result of this operation in memory or in a register
Steps 3 and 4 are called: execution time or E-time
The combination of I-time and E-time is called: the machine cycle.