Final answer:
Operations are faster with registers because they are located within the CPU, minimizing data access time compared to RAM. Registers function without requiring the slower system data bus and avoid memory address translations, enabling quicker data processing.
Step-by-step explanation:
Operations with registers are faster than those with memory due to the way computer processors are designed. Registers are small storage locations within the CPU (Central Processing Unit) that are used for storing immediate data that the processor needs to access quickly. Since registers are located within the CPU itself, the time taken to access data from them is significantly less than the time taken to fetch data from RAM (Random Access Memory), which is where more general memory operations occur.
When the CPU executes a program, it generally loads the necessary data into registers from the RAM. Since registers are much closer to the processor, in terms of the number of cycles needed to access them, operations can be performed much more rapidly. Whereas accessing RAM requires the CPU to use the system's data bus, which is slower and takes more cycles.
Additionally, because the CPU can directly access registers without having to use a memory address translation, this reduces any potential latency. CPU caches act as an intermediary step between the CPU and RAM, offering faster access to data than RAM but still not as fast as registers. The hierarchy of speed in terms of memory access can be summarized as registers being the fastest, followed by CPU caches, and then RAM, with physical storage such as hard drives being the slowest.