The family goes (from memory)
8080 8085 8088 (IBM PC) 8086 80186 80286 (IBM AT) 80386 (Compaq) 80486 Pentium
As for a 'RISC' core, all CISC processors have a RISC core (microcoded or hardwired)
In my definition a RISC processor executes instructions in 1 cycle, and as such I think you'll
find the majority of the pentium instruction set RISC, though it has a CISC family lineage
Neven MacEwan (B.E. E&E) Ph. 09 621 0001 Mob. 0274 749062
Alister Christie wrote:
Thanks Neven, but I think you'll find that the 486 was CISC as were Pentiums, starting with the Pentium Pro the Intel went down the CISC interface / RISC core (where complex instructions were broken down into a reduced instruction set making them more easily pipelined) - they obviously could not just go RISC (like the PowerPC) due to the fact that it would make them incompatible with the x86 instruction set.
But it has been a long time since I studied this kind of stuff so I could be wrong (and hopefully forgiven).
Alister Christie Computers for People Ph: 04 471 1849 Fax: 04 471 1266 http://www.salespartner.co.nz PO Box 13085 Johnsonville Wellington
Neven MacEwan wrote:
Alister
My understanding is the the 386 was a CISC the 486 introduced a RISC
instruction set, For what it is worth you may consider a CISC instruction as
a series of RISC instructions (microcode) in fact this is how they are implemented
Neven MacEwan (B.E. E&E) Ph. 09 621 0001 Mob. 0274 749062
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