ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on detail at a number of processor architectures developed by commercial organizations. An architecture has been accepted for inclusion if it has at least one VLSI implementation, and either the manufacturer considers it to be a RISC or the architectural approach has a common thread with the RISC approach. Despite the relative complexity of the architectural requirements, the entire CPU has been built with 115,000 transistors, which is not a large number by present VLSI standards. The majority of commercial RISC developments have tended to focus on maximizing the performance of the CPU at a cost level optimized for highend engineering workstation or minicomputer applications. In most technologies and at most times CPUs are potentially much faster than main memories, and that is now true of VLSI RISC processors. The usual RISC target market is in the high-end engineering workstation, minicomputer and server areas, but Intel is steering the 80960 well away from all general-purpose applications.
