A complex instruction set computer (CISC, /ˈsɪsk/) is a computer where single instructions can execute several low-level operations (such as a load from memory, an arithmetic operation, and a memory store) and/or are capable of multi-step operations or addressing modes within single instructions. The term was retroactively coined in contrast to reduced instruction set computer (RISC).
Examples of CISC instruction set architectures are System/360 through z/Architecture, PDP-11, VAX, Motorola 68k, and x86.
Famous quotes containing the words complex, instruction and/or set:
“Power is not an institution, and not a structure; neither is it a certain strength we are endowed with; it is the name that one attributes to a complex strategical situation in a particular society.”
—Michel Foucault (1926–1984)
“And, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
—Bible: New Testament, Ephesians 6:4.
“I do not set my life at a pin’s fee,
And for my soul, what can it do to that,
Being a thing immortal as itself?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)