Architecture
Pointer
A value that holds the address of a memory location, enabling indirect access to data.
Detailed Explanation
In hardware, pointers are registers holding addresses. FIFO read and write pointers track current positions. Stack pointers track the top of stack. Pointers enable data structures (linked lists, trees) and dynamic memory allocation.
Pointer arithmetic adds/subtracts to navigate memory. Pointer width matches address space size. Null pointers indicate invalid or uninitialized references.