Dall'organizzazione del computer strutturato di Tanenbaum,
Most instructions can be divided into one of two categories: register-memory or register-register.
Register-memory instructions allow memory words to be fetched into registers, where, for example, they can be used as ALU inputs in subsequent instructions. (‘‘Words’’ are the units of data moved between memory and registers. A word might be an integer. We will discuss memory organization later in this chapter.) Other register-memory instructions allow registers to be stored back into memory.
A typical register-register instruction fetches two operands from the registers, brings them to the ALU input registers, performs some operation on them (such as addition or Boolean AND), and stores the result back in one of the registers. The process of running two operands through the ALU and storing the result is called the data path cycle and is the heart of most CPUs. To a considerable extent, it defines what the machine can do. Modern computers have multiple ALUs operating in parallel and specialized for different functions. The faster the data path cycle is, the faster the machine runs.
Ci sono istruzioni per la memoria?
O una "operazione" di memoria di memoria implementata come due istruzioni di registro-memoria (una per leggere e l'altra per scrivere)? Non è inefficiente che spostare i dati direttamente tra due luoghi nella stessa memoria senza passare attraverso un registro?