RISC vs CISC
Two instruction set philosophies: Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) emphasizes simple operations and pipelining, Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) provides rich instructions doing complex operations. RISC and CISC represent different design tradeoffs.
Real World
Apple switched Macs from Intel's CISC x86 chips to their own ARM-based RISC M1 chip in 2020, achieving double the performance per watt because simpler instructions run more efficiently through the pipeline.
Exam Focus
Structure comparison answers as a table with matched points — state the RISC feature, the corresponding CISC feature, and the trade-off for each row.
How well did you know this?