RISC was invented as an alternative approach in an era when processors had really complex instructions Yes, RISC was simpler than the VAX-11 (which was simpler

RISC was invented as an alternative approach in an era when processors had really complex instructions Yes, RISC was simpler than the VAX-11 (which was simpler than the 432). But what did RISC do that Cray hadn't already done? It was a Cray on a chip sans vector. Even the CDC 6600 (also co-designed by Cray) was load/store.