Complex instruction set computer

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Complex instruction set computer" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

A complex instruction set computer (CISC /ˈsɪsk/) is a computer architecture in which single instructions can execute several low-level operations (such as a load from memory, an arithmetic operation, and a memory store) or are capable of multi-step operations or addressing modes within single instructions.^{[citation needed]} The term was retroactively coined in contrast to reduced instruction set computer (RISC)^[1] and has therefore become something of an umbrella term for everything that is not RISC,^{[citation needed]} where the typical differentiating characteristic^{[dubious – discuss]} is that most RISC designs use uniform instruction length for almost all instructions, and employ strictly separate load and store instructions.

Examples of CISC architectures include complex mainframe computers to simplistic microcontrollers where memory load and store operations are not separated from arithmetic instructions.^{[citation needed]} Specific instruction set architectures that have been retroactively labeled CISC are System/360 through z/Architecture, the PDP-11 and VAX architectures, and many others. Well known microprocessors and microcontrollers that have also been labeled CISC in many academic publications^{[citation needed]} include the Motorola 6800, 6809 and 68000 families; the Intel 8080, iAPX 432, x86 and 8051 families; the Zilog Z80, Z8 and Z8000 families; the National Semiconductor NS320xx family; the MOS Technology 6502 family; and others.

Some designs have been regarded as borderline cases by some writers.^[who?] For instance, the Microchip Technology PIC has been labeled RISC in some circles and CISC in others.