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accumulator

more about accumulator

accumulator


  4  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Accumulator  \Ac*cu"mu*la`tor\,  n.  [L.] 
  1.  One  who  or  that  which  accumulates,  collects,  or  amasses. 
 
  2.  (Mech.)  An  apparatus  by  means  of  which  energy  or  power  can 
  be  stored,  such  as  the  cylinder  or  tank  for  storing  water 
  for  hydraulic  elevators,  the  secondary  or  storage  battery 
  used  for  accumulating  the  energy  of  electrical  charges, 
  etc 
 
  3.  A  system  of  elastic  springs  for  relieving  the  strain  upon 
  a  rope,  as  in  deep-sea  dredging. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  accumulator 
  n  1:  a  person  who  is  employed  to  collect  payments  (as  for  rent  or 
  taxes)  [syn:  {collector},  {gatherer}] 
  2:  a  battery  that  stores  electric  charge  [syn:  {storage  battery}] 
 
  From  Jargon  File  (4.2.3,  23  NOV  2000)  [jargon]: 
 
  accumulator  n.  obs.  1.  Archaic  term  for  a  register.  On-line 
  use  of  it  as  a  synonym  for  `register'  is  a  fairly  reliable  indication  that 
  the  user  has  been  around  for  quite  a  while  and/or  that  the  architecture 
  under  discussion  is  quite  old  The  term  in  full  is  almost  never  used 
  of  microprocessor  registers,  for  example,  though  symbolic  names  for 
  arithmetic  registers  beginning  in  `A'  derive  from  historical  use  of  the 
  term  `accumulator'  (and  not  actually,  from  `arithmetic').  Confusingly, 
  though,  an  `A'  register  name  prefix  may  also  stand  for  `address',  as 
  for  example  on  the  Motorola  680x0  family.  2.  A  register  being  used 
  for  arithmetic  or  logic  (as  opposed  to  addressing  or  a  loop  index), 
  especially  one  being  used  to  accumulate  a  sum  or  count  of  many  items. 
  This  use  is  in  context  of  a  particular  routine  or  stretch  of  code. 
  "The  FOOBAZ  routine  uses  A3  as  an  accumulator."  3.  One's  in-basket 
  (esp.  among  old-timers  who  might  use  sense  1).  "You  want  this  reviewed? 
  Sure  just  put  it  in  the  accumulator."  (See  {stack}.) 
 
 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  accumulator 
 
    In  a  {central  processing  unit},  a  {register}  in 
  which  intermediate  results  are  stored.  Without  an 
  accumulator,  it  would  be  necessary  to  write  the  result  of  each 
  calculation  (addition,  multiplication,  {shift},  etc.)  to  {main 
  memory}  and  read  them  back  Access  to  main  memory  is  slower 
  than  access  to  the  accumulator  which  usually  has  direct  paths 
  to  and  from  the  {arithmetic  and  logic  unit}  (ALU). 
 
  The  {canonical}  example  is  summing  a  list  of  numbers.  The 
  accumulator  is  set  to  zero  initially,  each  number  in  turn  is 
  added  to  the  value  in  the  accumulator  and  only  when  all 
  numbers  have  been  added  is  the  result  written  to  main  memory. 
 
  Modern  CPUs  usually  have  many  registers,  all  or  many  of  which 
  can  be  used  as  accumulators.  For  this  reason,  the  term 
  accumulator"  is  somewhat  archaic.  Use  of  it  as  a  synonym  for 
  register"  is  a  fairly  reliable  indication  that  the  user  has 
  been  around  for  quite  a  while  and/or  that  the  architecture 
  under  discussion  is  quite  old  The  term  in  full  is  almost 
  never  used  of  microprocessor  registers,  for  example,  though 
  symbolic  names  for  arithmetic  registers  beginning  in  A" 
  derive  from  historical  use  of  the  term  accumulator"  (and  not 
  actually,  from  "arithmetic").  Confusingly,  though,  an  A" 
  register  name  prefix  may  also  stand  for  "address",  as  for 
  example  on  the  {Motorola}  {680x0}  family. 
 
  2.    A  register,  memory  location  or  variable  being 
  used  for  arithmetic  or  logic  (as  opposed  to  addressing  or  a 
  loop  index),  especially  one  being  used  to  accumulate  a  sum  or 
  count  of  many  items.  This  use  is  in  context  of  a  particular 
  routine  or  stretch  of  code.  "The  FOOBAZ  routine  uses  A3  as  an 
  accumulator." 
 
  [{Jargon  File}] 
 
  (1999-04-20) 
 
 




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