Reduced Instruction Set Computers (RISC) shortens execution time by reducing the clock cycles per instruction.

  • For RISC, we have a few, simple instructions, fixed in length. This means: ? Control units can be hardwired for maximum speed. Instructions take cycle to process meaning easier pipelining. Programming requires more instructions for complex operations.

  • For RISC, we only have Load / Store instructions for memory access, with few addressing modes. This means that: ? Parameter passing through registers means fast sequential execution. Requires more (expensive) registers.