Step 1: Understand the function of the Program Counter.
The Program Counter (PC) is a special-purpose register in a CPU that holds the memory address of the next instruction to be fetched and executed. This register is used to keep track of the sequence of instructions in a program.
Step 2: Analyze the options.
- (a) Program Counter: Correct. It holds the address of the next instruction.
- (b) Memory Address Register: Incorrect. This register holds the address of data in memory, not instructions.
- (c) Memory Data Register: Incorrect. This register holds the actual data read from or written to memory.
- (d) Instruction counters: Incorrect. This is not a standard term used for a register.
Step 3: Conclusion.
Thus, the correct answer is (a) Program counter.
The Boolean expression for the following truth table is: