A register comprising: a plurality of volatile memory cells (104-107) each having a first input and an output, the volatile memory cells being coupled in series with each other through their first inputs and their outputs; a nonvolatile memory (103) comprising a plurality of nonvolatile memory cells; and one or more serial connections (110, 112, 114) adapted to perform at least one of the following functions: serially providing the nonvolatile memory (103) with data to be written to the nonvolatile memory (103) at from one or more of the volatile memory cells during a data backup operation stored by the volatile memory cells; and serially providing data read from the nonvolatile memory (103) to a first one of the volatile memory cells (204) during a restore operation of the data stored by the volatile memory cells.
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