Complex Instruction Set Compute/Computer (CISC)

• is a type of Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)
• complex instructions
• requires fewer instructions and therefore less memory than RISC
• instructions take a variable number of clock cycles

CISC - Types

• IA-32 vs x86 - IA-64 vs x64

• IBM System／360

• x86 x64 (x86-16, x86-32, x86-64)

• System/360

• VAX

• PDP-11

• Motorola 68000 family