RISC
Technology & Computing abbreviation · Computer Hardware
| Stands for | Reduced instruction set computer |
|---|---|
| Categories | Technology & Computing |
RISC stands for Reduced instruction set computer, a computer hardware abbreviation.
Processor design philosophy based on a small set of simple instructions, each executing quickly, often in one clock cycle, with the compiler doing more of the work. Arm, RISC-V and the older MIPS and PowerPC architectures follow it.
Example: Apple's switch to RISC chips showed that efficiency, not just raw clock speed, wins in laptops.
Usage notes
IBM's 801 project under John Cocke pioneered the idea in the late 1970s, and the Berkeley RISC (David Patterson) and Stanford MIPS (John Hennessy) projects of the early 1980s made it influential. Hennessy and Patterson received the 2017 Turing Award for the work. Pronounced "risk". Its counterpart is CISC, though modern chips blur the line.
Related abbreviations
More computer hardware abbreviations
- PS/2 – Personal System/2 port
- PSU – Power supply unit
- PWM – Pulse-width modulation
- QLC – Quad-level cell
- RAID – Redundant array of independent disks
- RAM – Random-access memory
- RISC-V – RISC-V (open instruction set architecture)
- ROM – Read-only memory
- RU – Rack unit
- SAS – Serial Attached SCSI
- SATA – Serial ATA
- SBC – Single-board computer