CISC & RISC
Subject- ESD
Semester- III
Lab Instructor- Shilpa Marathe
What is CISC?
CISC was developed to make compiler development easier and simpler. The full
form of CISC is Complex Instruction Set Computer. They are chips that are easy
to program that makes efficient use of memory.
CISC eliminates the need for generating machine instructions to the processor.
For example, instead of having to make a compiler, write lengthy machine
instructions to calculate a square-root distance, a CISC processor offers a built-
in ability to do this.
CISC Architecture
What is RISC?
RISC is designed to perform a smaller number of types of computer
instruction. Hence, it can operate at a higher speed. The full form of RISC is
Reduced Instruction Set Computers. It is a microprocessor that is designed to
perform smaller number of computer instruction so that it can operate at a
higher speed.
RISC instruction sets hold less than 100 instructions and use a fixed
instruction format. This method uses a few simple addressing modes that use a
register-based instruction. In this compiler development mechanism,
LOAD/STORE is the only individual instructions for accessing memory.
RISC Architecture
Characteristics of CISC
One instruction is needed to support multiple addressing modes.
A large number of instructions.
Instruction-decoding logic will be complex.
Instructions for special tasks used infrequently.
A large variety of addressing modes
It offers variable-length instruction formats.
Instruction are larger than one-word size.
Instruction may take more than a single clock cycle to get executed.
Less number of general-purpose registers as operation get performed in memory
itself.
Various CISC designs are set up with two special registers for the stack pointer for
managing interrupts
Characteristics of RISC
Here, are an important characteristic of RICS:
Simpler instruction decoding
A number of general-purpose registers.
Simple Addressing Modes
Fewer Data types.
A pipeline can be achieved
One instruction per cycle
Register-to-register operations
Simple instruction format
Instruction execution would be faster
Smaller Programs
RISC
It has a microprogramming unit. It has a hard-wired unit of programming.
The instruction set has various different instructions that can be used for complex operations. The instruction set is reduced, and most of these instructions are very primitive.
Performance is optimized with emphasis on hardware. Performance is optimized which emphasis on software
Difference between Only single register set
They are mostly less or not pipelined
Multiple register sets are present
This type of processors are highly pipelined
CISC and RISC Execution time is very high Execution time is very less
Code expansion is not a problem. Code expansion may create a problem.
Decoding of instructions is complex. The decoding of instructions is simple.
It requires external memory for calculations It doesn’t require external memory for calculations
Examples of CISC processors are the System/360, VAX, AMD, and Intel x86 CPUs. Common RISC microprocessors are ARC, Alpha, ARC, ARM, AVR, PA-RISC, and SPARC.
Instructions can take several clock cycles Single-cycle for each instruction
More efficient use of RAM than RISC Heavy use of RAM (can cause bottlenecks if RAM is limited)
Simple, standardized instructions Complex and variable-length instructions
A small number of fixed-length instructions A large number of instructions
Limited addressing modes Compound addressing modes
Important applications are Security systems, Home automation. Important applications are : Smartphones, PDAs.
Varying formats (16-64 bits for each instruction). fixed (32-bit) format
Unified cache for instructions and data. Separate data and instruction cac
CISC Advantages
Here, are benefits of CISC
In CISC it is easy to add new commands into the chip without need to change the
structure of the instruction set
This architecture allows you to make efficient use of main memory
The compiler should not be very complicated, as with the case of CISC. The
instruction sets can be written to match the structures of high-level languages.
RISC Advantages
Here, are benefits of RISC
Complex and efficient machine instructions.
It offers extensive addressing capabilities for memory management.
Relatively few registers when compared with RISC processors
It helps you to reduce the instruction set.
Offers limited addressing schemes for memory operands
CISC Disadvantages
Here, are Drawbacks of CISC
Earlier generations of a processor family mostly contained as a subset in every
new version. Hence, instruction set & chip hardware becomes complex with each
generation of computers.
The performance of the machine slows down because of clock time taken by
different instructions will never be similar.
They are larger as they require more transistors
RISC Disadvantages
Here, are Cons/Drawbacks of RISC
The performance of the RISC processors depends on the programmer or
compiler. Compiler plays an important role while converting the CISC code to a
RISC code
RISC processors have large memory caches on the chip itself.
RISC architecture necessitates on-chip hardware to be continuously
reprogrammed.
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