Example of CISC microcontroller?

[matrixofdynamism]

I realize that Microchip PIC is a RISC processor. Could you give me an example of a popular CISC processor? I want to compare them side by side to see the type of instructions present in CISC but not in RISC.

Do you know of a better place that compares real world RISC and CISC and using their ISA, tries to explain their pros and cons?

As far as I know, CISC is less important now as memory is cheap. Therefore, RISC is more prevalent. Is this correct?

 

[aashitech]

Very old/popular classical 8051 microcontroller is a CISC core based.The major difference between a CISC and RISC core is the number of gates used ... RISC core can be designed with very less number of gates and hence there power consumption is very low when compared to a CISC core.
In a classic CISC core there may be many special instructions for some specific task but in RISC the same complex instruction of CISC can be done using a sequence of basic instructions of this RISC core.

 

[matrixofdynamism]

I do know the theory of CISC and RISC. I mean the fundamental differerence which you have just highlighted. I just really wanted to look at the datasheet to see it in practice via real world examples.

I have only heard of the 8051 as it is quite old and I am not sure is used anymore. Due to this, I did not know that is actually a CISC. I do realize that it is still availble.

The 8051 is a good example, I will have a look at it now.

 

[ravindragudi]

Erstwhile Motorola now Freescale 68HC11 microcontroller has CISC architecture and a very popular one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freescale_68HC11
**broken link removed**

 

[Deexith Hasan]

8051 mcu...

 

[matrixofdynamism]

I have found through wikipedia that there are infact multiple microcontrollers, all based on the 8051.

By the way, are there any modern microcontroller/microprocessor designs that are infact CISC based? Are Intel and AMD chips CISC based? Is ARM and PowerPC CISC based?

 

[aashitech]

Intel x86 series (the one which you use every day in your PC) are all CISC , ARM is a extremely energy efficient RISC core and that`s why has major share in all portable/handheld/battery operated devices.