CISC y RISC Architectures

Ivn Alberto Arias Galvis

Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Sede Manizales
14 de Agosto de 2012
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Meaning and characteristics of CISC
Both refers to the machine (microprocessor)
instruction set architecture ISA.

CISC: Complex instruction set computer.
large instruction set
instructions can perform very complex operations,
powerful assembly language
variable instruction formats
large number of addressing modes
few registers
machine instructions implemented with microcode

2
Meaning and characteristics of RISC
RISC: Reduced instruction set computer.
relatively few instructions
simple addressing modes, only load/store
instructions
access memory
uniform instruction length
many registers
no microcode
pipelined instruction execution
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History I
In the beginning the memory was an invaluable
resource, and the access time was pretty slow,
so the instructions was powerful enough to
develop complex operations and only occupy one
memory space, which only had to be acceded
one time, this was the principal goal of CISC,
additionally the reduction of semantic gap and
the incipiency of compilers was a problem to
overcome.
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History II
The advance in memory speed and studies that
demonstrated that a wide part of the CISC
instructions was actually unused leaded to the
research of a computing based in elemental
instructions and pipelined execution.
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Processor performance
The CISC approach attempts to minimize the
number of instructions per program, sacrificing
the number of cycles per instruction.
RISC does the opposite, reducing the cycles per
instruction at the cost of the number of
instructions per program
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Comparison
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CISC RISC
Emphasis on hardware Emphasis on software
Includes multi-clock complex
instructions
Single-clock, reduced instruction
only

Memory-to-memory:
"LOAD" and "STORE" incorporated
in
Instructions
Register to register:
"LOAD" and "STORE" are
independent instructions
Small code sizes, high cycles per
second
Low cycles per second, large code
Sizes
Transistors used for storing
complex
Instructions
Spends more transistors on
memory registers

Machines Using CISC and RISC
Architectures
CISC:
Intel 80486

RISC:
ARM
MIPS
PowerPC
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Example: CISC Approach for a product
of two operands

CISC Approach
CISC design would try to finish the task in the minimum
possible instructions by implementing hardware which could
understand and execute series of operations. Thus the
processor would come with a specific instruction MUL in its
instruction set. MUL will loads the two values from the
memory into separate registers, multiplies the operands in the
execution unit, and then stores the product in the appropriate
location. So, the entire task of multiplying two numbers can
be completed with one instruction:
MUL 1:3, 4:2
MUL is referred to as a "complex instruction" as it operates
directly on the computer's memory banks and does not
require the programmer to explicitly call any loading
or storing functions.
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Example:RISC Approach for a product
of two operands

RISC processors use simple instructions that can be executed within
a clock cycle. Thus, MUL instruction will be divided into three
instructions.
i) "LOAD," which moves data from the memory bank to a
register,
ii) "PROD," which finds the product of two operands located
within the registers, and
iii) "STORE," which moves data from a register to the memory
banks.
In order to perform the task, a programmer would need to code four
lines of assembly:
LOAD A, 1:3
LOAD B, 4:2
PROD A, B
STORE 1:3, A
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Bibliography
http://www.engineersgarage.com/articles/risc-
and-cisc-architecture
http://users.abo.fi/mats/codeopt2011/handouts
/Processors.pdf
Example
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Thanks
Questions
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