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The First RISC Chip

Close-up view of a chip package featuring Hewlett-Packard's reduced instruction set computing (RISC) architecture. Enlarge
Underside of an HP RISC chip. Enlarge
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Date: 1986

Hewlett-Packard’s first use of reduced instruction set computing (RISC) required the company’s biggest R&D project ever to that point. Codenamed Spectrum and released under the name Precision Architecture, the technology launched in Hewlett-Packard’s established factory, business and engineering computer lines all at once. Precision Architecture would prove a watershed in the commercialization of RISC technology, which up till then had been largely relegated to research and experimentation.

 

 

Watch an Inside the Vault video about RISC technology.

Tags: 1980s • 1986 • RISC ; Precision Architecture

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