Why is the program counter increased during the fetch stage rather than after the instruction has been executed?

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Question

Why is the program counter increased during the fetch stage rather than after the instruction has been executed?

Accepted Answer

So that the address of the following instruction is already in place, allowing the next fetch to start without delay — Award 1 mark. The value can still be replaced afterwards if the instruction turns out to be a jump.

Answer

Because increasing it later would reset the clock

Answer

Because the processor cannot increase it once decoding has begun

Answer

So that the address of the following instruction is already in place, allowing the next fetch to start without delay

Answer

Because the execute stage may overwrite the accumulator

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