Instruction Cycle

The Instruction Cycle (or Fetch-Decode-Execute Cycle) is a process that the CPU goes through to process all instructions. There are 3 stages to the Instruction Cycle: Fetch, Decode and Execute.

Fetch

The Fetch stage first gets the memory address of the next instruction from the Program Counter, and then goes onto get the data from memory.

Decode

The Decode stage takes the data fetched by the Fetch stage and decodes it ready for the Execute stage.

Execute

The Execute stage then goes onto execute the decoded instruction.