A program counter is a register in a computer processor that contains the address (location) of the instruction being executed at the current time. In order for the program counter to move to the next instruction and thus process the entire program, it must be updated or changed at runtime. Pointers are variables that point to the address of where the variable's value is stored, and ONLY POINTERS can be changed at runtime. Trying to change a normal variable will just result in a FALSE return.
Program Counter is just a synonim for Instruction Pointer.
A register can hold data, and it can be used for temporary storage or, in the case of an accumulator, it can participate in arithmetic or logical operations. A counter is a special case of a register. Usually, it can only be loaded, stored, or incremented, or used for the stack or as the program counter.
A stored-program computer at least needs to know which instruction it has to execute next. Other memory addresses of special significance are e.g. the top of one or more stacks, or addresses to be used by instructions.To keep track of such addresses, all CPUs have one or more registers; for instance the address of the next instruction is stored in the instruction pointer, a.k.a. program counter. Which and how many registers of a CPU are designated to keep addresses depends on the CPU type. The Z80 for instance has a program counter, a stack pointer, two index registers and an indirect address register doubling as 16 bit accumulator, while the contemporay 6502 only has a program counter and a stack pointer.
the master program of OS is stored in ROM.
when the power is turend on,the monitor program stored either in EPROM or ROM comes alive. The reset key clears the program counter,and the program counter holds the memory address 0000H.some systems are automatically reset whene the power is turend on (called power-on reset).
a program that is stored in the memory of the computer that executes it
Program counter is a processor register that indicates where a computer is in its program sequence. It contains the address of the memory location.
program counter is a register that has the address of next instruction that has to be executed after currently executing instruction. it is used for proper execution of functions of computer by providing address of next instruction to microprocessor.
The Instruction Location Counter is a variable inside of the assembler. While the Program Counter is a register. The PC solely keeps track of the next instruction in a program, ILC increments by each instruction's operand length.
The function of the program counter register is to hold the address of the instruction that is being executed and (later) to hold the address of the instruction that will be executed next.
The concept of stored program was presented by Dr.John Von Neumann.