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CSS 548 Joshua Lo

The document discusses Reduced Instruction Set Computers (RISC). It provides a brief history of RISC, describing how earlier Complex Instruction Set Computers (CISC) faced issues as technology advanced. This led to the inception of RISC in the 1970s, with the goal of using simpler instructions that could execute within one clock cycle. Key aspects of the RISC approach discussed include pipelining, register-to-register operations, and reducing load/store operations. Advantages of RISC include easier compiler development and quicker development of new microprocessors. While X86 remains CISC, modern processors now share traits of both RISC and CISC architectures.

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61 views13 pages

CSS 548 Joshua Lo

The document discusses Reduced Instruction Set Computers (RISC). It provides a brief history of RISC, describing how earlier Complex Instruction Set Computers (CISC) faced issues as technology advanced. This led to the inception of RISC in the 1970s, with the goal of using simpler instructions that could execute within one clock cycle. Key aspects of the RISC approach discussed include pipelining, register-to-register operations, and reducing load/store operations. Advantages of RISC include easier compiler development and quicker development of new microprocessors. While X86 remains CISC, modern processors now share traits of both RISC and CISC architectures.

Uploaded by

Utsav Singhal
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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RISC

CSS 548 Joshua Lo

RISC
Reduced Instruction Set Computers
Microprocessor architecture Designed to perform a set of smaller computer instructions so that it can operate at higher speeds

What will we cover?


History Theory Advantages Pipelining

Before the RISC era


Compilers were hard to build especially for machines with registers
Make machine do more work than software Have instructions load and store directly to memory (memoryto-memory operations)

Software costs were rising and hardware costs were dropping


Move as much functionality to hardware

Magnetic core memory was used as main memory which was slow and expensive
Minimize assembly code

Complex Instruction Set Computers (CISC)


Use complex instructions MULT, ADD

Technology was advancing


Compilers were improving
Simple compilers found it difficult to use more complex instructions Optimizing compilers rarely needed more powerful instructions

Caches
allowed main memory to be accessed at similar speeds to control memory

Semiconductor memory was replacing magnetic core memory


Reduced performance gap between control and main memory

Inception of RISC
1974 John Cocke (IBM) proved that 80% of work was done using only 20% of the instructions Three RISC projects
IBM 801 machine (1974) Berkeleys RISC-I and RISC-II processors (1980) Stanfords MIPS processor (1981)

1986 announcement of first commercial RISC chip

RISC Approach
Use only simple instructions that can be executed within one clock cycle
Fewer transistors for instructions = more registers

Pipelining Register-to-register operations


Operand reuse Reduction of load/store

Pipelining
Sequential

IF

ID

O OE O F S

IF

ID

Clock Cycle

O OE O F S

IF

ID

O OE O F S

Pipelined IF Clock Cycle ID IF O OE O F S ID O OE O F S IF ID O OE O F S Time IF Instruction Fetch ID Instruction Decode OF Operand Fetch OE Operand Execution OS Operation Store

Pipelining
Data Dependency IF ID IF O OE O F S ID

O OE O F S

IF Instruction Fetch ID Instruction Decode OF Operand Fetch OE Operand Execution OS Operation Store

IF

ID

O OE O F S

Branch Address Dependency IF ID O OE O F S

IF

ID

O OE O F S

Pipelining
Data dependencies can be addressed by reordering the instructions when possible (compiler) Performance degradation from branches can be reduced by branch prediction or executing instructions for both branches until the correct branch is identified

Other Advantages
New microprocessors can be developed and tested more quickly if being less complicated is one of its aims Smaller instruction sets are easier for compiler programmers to use

Use of RISC today


X86 is one of the only chips that retain CISC architecture
Large base of proprietary PC applications were written for X86 or compiled into X86 machine code Intel was able to spend vast amounts of money on processor development to offset the RISC advantages enough to maintain PC market share

CISC and RISC architectures are nearly indistinguishable


CISC processors use pipelining and can complete multiple instructions per cycle Transistor technology has allowed more room on chips allowing RISC to have more CISC like instruction

Questions?
Al-Aubidy, K (2010). Advanced Computer Architecture. Retrieved November 2012 from http://www.philadelphia.edu.jo/academics/kaubaidy/uploads/ACA-Lect2.pdf Chen, C., Novick, G., Shimano, K. (2000). RISC ARCHITECTURE. Retrieved November 2012, from http://www-csfaculty.stanford.edu/~eroberts/courses/soco/projects/risc/about/index.html Joy, W. (1997). Reduced Instruction Set Computers (RISC): Academic/Industrial Interplay Drives Computer Performance Forward. Retrieved November 2012, from http://homes.cs.washington.edu/~lazowska/cra/risc.html Merat, F. (1996). PowerPC. Retrieved November 2012, from http://engr.case.edu/merat_francis/eeap282f97/lectures/28_RISC%20&%20PowerPC. pdf Patterson, D. A. (January 02, 1985). Reduced instruction set computers.Communications of the Acm, 28, 1, 8-21. Rouse, M (2005). RISC (reduced instruction set computer). Techtarget. Retrieved November 2012 from http://search400.techtarget.com/definition/RISC

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