What best describes the function of a computer register?
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.