computer-architecture-cisc.html
* created: 2025-06-10T17:28
* modified: 2025-07-08T12:52
title
CISC
description
The Complex Instruction Set Architecture describes a general purpose instruction set that focuses on composite instruction that generally range from 3-6 Byte in size, and can take multiple cycles to execute.
related notes
Complex Instruction Set
The main idea behind the complex instruction set architecture is generally "more is more". There is a strong focus on representing a variety of specific tasks through composite instructions. These composite instruction can often take multiple command cycles to complete and generally range from 3-6 Byte in size.
If you would compare the structure to the RISC Architecture a great mental model would be to take multiple risc instructions and compose a more complex instruction out of them (even though there are a bunch of hardware differences too).