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:
“By “object” is meant some element in the complex whole that is defined in abstraction from the whole of which it is a distinction.”
—John Dewey (1859–1952)
“I turn my gaze
Back to the instruction manual which has made me dream of
Guadalajara.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Euclid alone
Has looked on Beauty bare. Fortunate they
Who, though once only and then but far away,
Have heard her massive sandal set on stone.”
—Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950)