CISC and RISC

Question 1

What does CISC mean?

Answer 1

Complex Instruction Set Computer

Question 2

What does RISC mean?

Answer 2

Reduced Instruction Set Computer

Question 3

What are the properties of CISC?

Answer 3

• a large instruction set
• instructions are built into hardware
• used in embedded systems and in microprocessors

Question 4

What are the properties of RISC?

Answer 4

• small instruction set
• each instruction is one line of machine code
• used in everyday devices

Question 5

What are the benefits of CISC processors?

Answer 5

• compliers have to do less work
• they require less RAM since instructions are smaller

Question 6

What are the benefits of RISC processors?

Answer 6

Pipelining is possible since each instruction takes one clock cycle

Question 7

What is a graphics processing unit?

Answer 7

A co-processor that is made up of lots of independent parallel processors

Question 8

What are GPU’s used for now?

Answer 8

GPU’s are used for image processing and machine learning

Question 9

What are multi-core systems?

Answer 9

Systems where there are multiple cores that separate fetch-execute cycles

Question 10

What are parallel systems?

Answer 10

Systems where multiple instructions can be completed at any given time, doesn’t require multiple cores, it can use threading and pipelining instead