I wouldn't consider heterogeneous computing and vector instructions "going back to a CISC-like model". RISC is actually continuing a slow but steady march forwa

I wouldn't consider heterogeneous computing and vector instructions "going back to a CISC-like model". RISC is actually continuing a slow but steady march forward, with the simplicity of AArch64 being a notable step along the way. I tend to think of "CISC" as complex instruction encodings, smaller register files, complex sets of addressing modes, lack of orthogonality in instructions, etc. None of these aspects are gaining in popularity for new designs. The only one I can think of that gained any popularity is Thumb-like compressed instruction sets, which aren't so much "CISC" as "don't spend opcode space for no reason".