Re: 6502, 65816 = RISC ?

[Jawaid Bazyar <bazyar@hypermall.com>]

Gilles Tschopp wrote:
> 
> I would like to show a very interesting thing from the Western
> Design Center home page....
> 
> I found this sentence at bottom on this page
>         http://www.wdesignc.com/new.html
> 
> ".... The 6502 has been identified by some, including
> Microprocessor Report (12/90), as the first 8-bit RISC
> microprocessor. ...."
> 
> It means that WDC claims that the 6502 is RISC ?????
> 
> Your advice ?
> 
> Gilles Tschopp

Specific RISC implementations change over time. Modern RISC processors
have a lot of registers, 32 or 64-bit architectures, fixed instruction
lengths.. but these are just some aspects of a processor. I'd say that
the defining characteristic of RISC was the initiation of a trend away
from heavily micro-coded processors with very complicated very
time-consuming instructions, and to processors with orthogonal, simple,
fast-running instructions. While no processor is "perfect" and the 6502
is no exception, the 6502 does definitely fit this defining
characteristic of RISC, especially as compared to the other processors
of its day (Z80, which is heavily microcoded, and very inefficient). Of
course, the 6502 was designed long before the term "RISC" came into use,
but the word refers to a concept which the 6502 does fit into.

-- 
 Jawaid Bazyar              |   Affordable WWW & Internet Solutions
 Interlink Advertising Svcs |   for Small Business
 bazyar@hypermall.com       |   P.O Box 641               (303) 781-3273
 --The Future is Now!--     |   Englewood, CO 80151-0641  (303) 789-4197
fax