Prompted by the chipmaker's announcement of the SSE5 instruction-set extensions, Glaskowsky analyzes the ultimate outcome to this old controversy. Peter N. Glaskowsky is a computer architect in ...

I was just wanting to know if anyone can tell me if the new athlon mp and xp's are risc chips or if they went to cisc. I know the older AMD chips were all RISC, but not sure of the newer ones. When ...

There are a ton of inventions out in the world that are almost complete accidents, but are still ubiquitous in our day-to-day lives. Things like bubble wrap which was originally intended to be ...

A new instruction set by the original creator of MIPS aims to reinvent the ultra-low power, high-efficiency processor -- and to do so with an architecture that's fundamentally open and available to ...

RISC came about due the realization that compilers for CISC ISAs were only using a small set of simple register instructions (because complex instructions were too complex to use). But even if you ...

Some of the articles online are framing this as a CISC-versus-RISC battle, but that's an outdated comparison. The "classic" formulation of the x86 versus ARM debate goes back to two different methods ...

Closed systems stagnate innovation—Linux users know this. Licenses, royalties, and fees keep the well-funded in control. RISC-V throws that out the window because it's free to adopt, adapt, and ...

A computer processor uses a so-called Instruction Set Architecture to talk with the world outside of its own circuitry. This ISA consists of a number of instructions, which essentially define the ...

The two primary chip architectures are based on the complexity of the machine instructions. See CISC and RISC. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction requires permission.

The Mac's best quality: software A Pioneer Press piece opines that the best part of the Macintosh platform is elegant, well-designed software. "So what does Macintosh have going for it? The most ...