AI engineering glossary · Computing foundations
What is instruction cycle?
Instruction cycle (also called Fetch-decode-execute): The repeating process a CPU follows to run a program: fetch an instruction from memory, decode what it means, execute it, and then store any result. Every program step runs through this cycle.
Instruction cycle: an example
To run an add instruction, the CPU fetches it, decodes it as addition, executes it on two registers and stores the sum.
Related terms
More Computing foundations terms
- Instruction set architecture
- Integer overflow
- Inter-process communication
- Interpreter
- IP address
- IPv6
- Kernel
- Kilobyte and megabyte
Where you learn it
Instruction cycle is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.