1.1.2 Types of Processor

Question 1

How do RISC and CISC processors compare?

Answer 1

• RISC has a smaller instruction set, fitting into single clock cycles. Harder to translate and takes more space, but is capable of pipelining.
• CISC has a large instruction set built into the hardware, used for microcontrollers or embedded systems. Easier to translate, takes less space, but often instructions are wasted space.

Question 2

How do multicore and parallel systems work?

Answer 2

• Multicore CPUs have several independent cores that can complete their own FDE cycles.
• Parallel systems use threading with a single core to a similar effect.
• Multicore systems tend to have better performance on large projects.

Question 3

How do GPUs work?

Answer 3

• Graphics Processing Units is a device with a huge amount of independent processing cores, ideal for completing repetitive tasks such as image processing and machine learning. They are a type of coprocessor.