Which of the following sets of design principles characterizes a RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) architecture?
Which of the following sets of design principles characterizes a RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) architecture?
Multiple Choice Options
- A
Complex variable-length instructions with microprogrammed control
- B✓ Correct Option
Small set of simple instructions, large general-purpose register file, fixed-length instruction encoding, and single-cycle pipelined execution
- C
Variable instruction sizes with memory-to-memory arithmetic operations
- D
No hardware pipelining and complex multi-cycle addressing modes
Detailed Technical Solution & Explanation
RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) architectures (e.g., ARM, MIPS, RISC-V) are defined by:
1. Fixed-length instruction formats (typically 32 bits)
2. Load/Store architecture (arithmetic operations only occur between registers)
3. Large general-purpose register file (typically 32+ registers)
4. Hardwired control for single-cycle per instruction throughput
5. Deep hardware pipelining.