MIPS R4000 Microprocessor User's Manual 1
Introduction
1
Historically, the evolution of computer architectures has been dominated
by families of increasingly complex central processors. Under market
pressures to preserve existing software, complex instruction set computer
(CISC) architectures evolved by the accretion of microcode and
increasingly intricate instruction sets. This intricacy in architecture was
itself driven by the need to support high-level languages and operating
systems, as advances in semiconductor technology made it possible to
fabricate integrated circuits of greater and greater complexity. And at that
time it seemed self-evident to designers that architectures should continue
to become more and more complex as technological advances made such
VLSI designs possible.
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