"CISC" stands for Complex Instruction Set Computer, CISC processor can execute complex instructions in one or more clock cycles. It is meant to differentiate it from a RISC or Reduced Instruction Set Computer, which can only perform one simple instruction in (usually) one clock cycle. A CISC is meant to have many machine level commands carried out as part of a single assembly command. The assembly command is broken into a series of "micro-code" commands which are executed internal to the processor by a "micro-code sequencer".
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