Semiconductor Engineering

How To Extend The ‘Unscalable’ RISC Architectures

A couple of years ago, Erik McClure (a Microsoft software developer, at the time) published a blog entitled RISC Is Fundamentally Unscalable. This blog was really quite interesting and made some very ...
ZDNet

Rediscovering RISC-V: Apple M1 sparks renewed interest in non-x86 architectures

RISC-V is, like x86 and ARM, an instruction set architecture (ISA). Unlike x86 and ARM, it is a free and open standard that anyone can use without getting locked into someone else's processor designs ...
ExtremeTech

RISC vs. CISC Is the Wrong Lens for Comparing Modern x86, ARM CPUs

Try to investigate the differences between the x86 and ARM processor families (or x86 and the Apple M1), and you'll see the acronyms CISC and RISC. It's a common way to frame the discussion, but not a ...
CNET

AMD's SSE5 ends the old RISC vs. CISC debate

Prompted by the chipmaker's announcement of the SSE5 instruction-set extensions, Glaskowsky analyzes the ultimate outcome to this old controversy. Peter N. Glaskowsky is a computer architect in ...
Gizmodo

Apple’s Fantastic M1 Processor Is Held Back by Software Compatibility

It’s easy to look at the benchmark numbers of Apple’s home-grown processor with wide, astonished eyes—and some heart-felt expletives, too. The M1 is no doubt impressive enough to capture the interest ...
9to5Mac

Apple exploring open-source RISC-V chips, but almost certainly not instead of ARM

An Apple job ad reveals that the company is exploring the use of RISC-V chips, an open-source processor tech that competes with the ARM architecture used for Apple’s A-series and M-series chips.
HotHardware

Intel Surprisingly To Drive RISC-V Adoption, Bolsters Foundry Expansion With $1B Innovation Fund

Intel is making a few key major foundry moves to bolster its IDM 2.0 strategy, such as setting up a massive $1 billion innovation fund to support both early-stage startups and established companies ...
ZDNet

RISC-V opens up processor design

Today, if you want to build a high-performance computing device, you can almost certainly find all the software you need in a free and open form. The same is not true for the processor chips that run ...
Computerworld

Can ARM hold the mobile advantage over Intel’s x86 architecture?

When it comes to personal computing, most of the growth today is in the mobile market, not traditional desktop PCs and laptops. You could say that the PC concept is morphing to include next-generation ...
EDN

Renesas develops new CISC architecture

MUNICH, Germany — For embedded applications in office automation, consumer electronics and industrial systems, Renesas has developed a new 32-bit microcontroller family. Now the company provided first ...
Semiconductor Engineering

Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)

An instruction set architecture (ISA) defines the set of basic operations a computer must support. This includes the functional definition of operations and precise descriptions of how to invoke and ...