title: Understanding how EIP (RIP) register works?
body: <p>I'm a complete novice to computer architecture and the low level stuff that happens at the processor/memory level. I'll start by saying that. What i've done with computers has pretty much always been at the high level programming level. C++, Java, etc.</p>
  
  <p>That being said, I'm currently reading a book that is starting to delve into the low level programming stuff, assembly, registers, pointers, etc. I'm having a hard time understanding how the EIP register works. </p>
  
  <p>From what is said in the book, each memory address has one byte, and each byte has a memory address. </p>
  
  <p>From what I'm reading about the EIP register, it points to the next set of instructions for the processor to do. While using debugging tools (GDB) to follow along in the book, if you were to examine memory at a particular location, say:</p>
  
  <p>x/8xb it allegedly lets you examine the first 8 bytes at the memory address. But if each memory address has only 1 byte, I don't understand. Can someone help me understand this? I have looked for thorough explanations of how this register works and functions but I can't really find anything</p>