What is RISC?

RISC, or Reduced Instruction Set Computer. is a type of microprocessor architecture that utilizes a small, highly-optimized set of instructions, rather than a more specialized set of instructions often found in other types of architectures.

History
The first RISC projects came from IBM, Stanford, and UC-Berkeley in the late 70s and early 80s. The IBM 801, Stanford MIPS, and Berkeley RISC 1 and 2 were all designed with a similar philosophy which has become known as RISC. Certain design features have been characteristic of most RISC processors:

• one cycle execution time: RISC processors have a CPI (clock per instruction) of one cycle. This is due to the optimization of each instruction on the CPU and a technique called ;

   

• pipelining: a techique that allows for simultaneous execution of parts, or stages, of instructions to more efficiently process instructions;

   

• large number of registers: the RISC design philosophy generally incorporates a larger number of registers to prevent in large amounts of interactions with memory

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