A basic instruction cycle consists of these 5 stages.Instruction CycleIF - Instruction FetchRD - Instruction Decode and Register ReadEX - ExecuteMA - Memory AccessWB - Write BackI understood the function of all the stages accept the fourth (Memory access). What's the significance of this stage?Over Internet what I've found is thisMA(Memory Access) does following operationIf load or store instruction, then access memoryIf branch instruction, replace PC with destination addressThe second point is clear, but I'm confused by the first. Suppose we have load and store instruction like this $$(I) R_1 \leftarrow m[A_1]$$ $$(II) m[A_2] \rightarrow R_2$$what will the MA stage do for the above instructions?
Understanding Instruction Cycle?
computer architecture
You have to operate on the memory to do anything useful. Reading next instruction, getting variable to operate on or saving calculated value - all that requires accessing memory.