We have 32 general purpose registers (with register 0 bound to the constant 0)

Each register holds 32 bits, and computation on signed integers in TC

We also have the 32bit Program Counter pc — which holds the memory address of the current instruction

Because there are not enough spaces in the register file, we store there frequently used variables:

  • Registers are faster than external memory
  • Fewer read/writes faster program execution
  • The program size is smaller if registers are used for variables

06.3 Integer computations