The document discusses the instruction cycle in a computer system. The instruction cycle retrieves program instructions from memory, decodes what actions they specify, and carries out those actions. It has four main steps: 1) fetching the next instruction from memory and storing it in the instruction register, 2) decoding the encoded instruction, 3) reading the effective address for direct or indirect memory instructions, and 4) executing the instruction by passing control signals to relevant components like the ALU to perform the specified actions. The instruction cycle is the basic operational process in which a computer executes instructions.