Classification of Instruction Sets
A complex instruction set computer (CISC) has many specialized instructions, which may only be rarely used in practical programs. A reduced instruction set computer (RISC) simplifies the processor by only implementing instructions that are frequently used in programs; unusual operations are implemented as subroutines, where the extra processor execution time is offset by their rare use. Theoretically important types are the minimal instruction set computer and the one instruction set computer but these are not implemented in commercial processors. Another variation is the very long instruction word (VLIW) where the processor receives many instructions encoded and retrieved in one instruction word.
Read more about this topic: Instruction Set
Famous quotes containing the words instruction and/or sets:
“Everything from airplanes to kitchen blenders—and even chopsticks—comes with an instruction manual. Children, despite all their complexity, do not.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“Music sets up ladders,
it makes us invisible,
it sets us apart,
it lets us escape;
but from the visible
there is no escape.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)