How Computers Work - Software

Running

The CPU runs instructions using a "fetch-execute" cycle: the CPU gets the first instruction in the sequence, executes it (adding two numbers or whatever), then fetches the next instruction and executes it, and so on. Some of the instructions affect the order that the CPU takes through the instruction sequence .. for example an instruction might direct the CPU to jump back to an earlier point in the instruction sequence (loops are implemented this way), or to skip over the next instruction if a particular condition is true (if-statements are implemented this way).