File:KL_Sun_UltraSparc.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
reduced instruction set computing
Sign in to saveAlso known as RISC, reduced instruction set computer
processor executing one instruction in minimal clock cycles
~37 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Sun Microsystems UltraSPARC processor is a type of RISC microprocessor.
In electronics and computer science, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC, pronounced "risk") is a computer architecture designed to simplify the individual instructions given to the computer to accomplish tasks. Compared to the instructions given to a complex instruction set computer (CISC), a RISC computer might require more machine code in order to accomplish a task because the individual instructions perform simpler operations. The goal is to offset the need to process more instructions by increasing the speed of each instruction, in particular by implementing an instruction pipeline, which may be simpler to achieve given simpler instructions.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “reduced instruction set computing” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.