3 ms·

Maybe not, but it's still at least an order of magnitude fewer instructions than x86 :)

magicalhippo 6y ago
It is my understanding that it is "reduced-instruction set computer" rather than "reduced instruction-set computer". That is the reduced means each instruction does less, rather than specifying the number of them.
- moonchild 6y ago
  Wikipedia[1] both corroborates and disagrees; > A RISC is a computer with a small, highly optimized set of instructions but later: > The term "reduced" in that phrase was intended to describe the fact that the amount of work any single instruction accomplishes is reduced—at most a single data memory cycle—compared to the "complex instructions" of CISC CPUs that may require dozens of data memory cycles in order to execute a single instruction 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduced_instruction_set_computer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduced_instruction_set_comput...
  - magicalhippo 6y ago
    From this[1] piece it seems the the original goal was indeed both: > Cocke and his team reduced the size of the instruction set, eliminating certain instructions that were seldom used. "We knew we wanted a computer with a simple architecture and a set of simple instructions that could be executed in a single machine cycle—making the resulting machine significantly more efficient than possible with other, more complex computer designs," recalled Cocke in 1987. [1]: https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/risc/ https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/risc/
- ithkuil 6y ago
  IIRC the idea is that the judge of the complexity is ultimately how direct it maps to the underlying implementation. For example VLWI machines follow the same principles but with the focus around super scalars, i.e. they favour explicit parallelism defined in the instruction stream as opposed to dynamic circuitry implementing instruction reordering and dependency tracking

It is my understanding that it is "reduced-instruction set computer" rather than "reduced instruction-set computer". That is the reduced means each instruction does less, rather than specifying the number of them.

moonchild 6y ago
Wikipedia[1] both corroborates and disagrees; > A RISC is a computer with a small, highly optimized set of instructions but later: > The term "reduced" in that phrase was intended to describe the fact that the amount of work any single instruction accomplishes is reduced—at most a single data memory cycle—compared to the "complex instructions" of CISC CPUs that may require dozens of data memory cycles in order to execute a single instruction 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduced_instruction_set_computer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduced_instruction_set_comput...
- magicalhippo 6y ago
  From this[1] piece it seems the the original goal was indeed both: > Cocke and his team reduced the size of the instruction set, eliminating certain instructions that were seldom used. "We knew we wanted a computer with a simple architecture and a set of simple instructions that could be executed in a single machine cycle—making the resulting machine significantly more efficient than possible with other, more complex computer designs," recalled Cocke in 1987. [1]: https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/risc/ https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/risc/
ithkuil 6y ago
IIRC the idea is that the judge of the complexity is ultimately how direct it maps to the underlying implementation. For example VLWI machines follow the same principles but with the focus around super scalars, i.e. they favour explicit parallelism defined in the instruction stream as opposed to dynamic circuitry implementing instruction reordering and dependency tracking