ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Register machine

Okay kiddo, let me try to explain what a register machine is in simple terms that you can understand.

A register machine is like a robot with pockets! Just like how you have pockets in your clothes to keep your toys or snacks, a register machine has pockets too but they're called registers.

These tiny pockets can store small pieces of information. So, a register machine can do simple tasks by taking information from these registers, performing an operation on them and then storing the result back in the registers. Think of it like a calculator that does basic addition or subtraction, but much much faster!

The 'operations' or tasks that the register machine can do, are defined by a set of instructions. These instructions tell the machine which registers to take the information from, which operation to perform, and where to store the result back.

For example, if we want the register machine to add 2 and 3 together, we can give it an instruction that says:

"Take the number in register 1, add it to the number in register 2, and store the result in register 3."

The register machine will then follow this instruction and perform the addition, giving us the result of 5.

So, to summarize, a register machine is like a robot with tiny pockets called registers that can store information. You can give it a set of instructions to tell it what to do with the information stored in these registers, and it will perform the task quickly and efficiently.