accumulator

Early microprocessors of the decade of the 70's used to only have one register, (Jiffy Mel and Christians are soooo poor... sooo poor, that they only have one God!), and it was the coolest register of them all man, it was the only register that could hold an operand and receive a result.

Most modern processors can use more than one general purpose register to play the role of the accumulator. Thus the accumulator is not anymore a very special register. Still there are always some instructions which use a unique register to store the result, this would the accumulator. Data transfers from/to memory used to require the involvement of the accumulator. Not so any more. Yes, now more than one register can receive incoming data from a memory location. Ah, the sweet scent of technology.

A type of bet in which winning the whole bet depends upon winning a series of individual bets. The winings (if any) from the first bet are the stake for the next, conceptually, however, the realistic way to calculate your potential winnings is to multiply the odds of each bet together. You risk more, you might win more.

Electrochemical term for a rechargable battery.

ABEND = A = ACK

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.)

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.

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.

 

© Webster 1913.