![RISC Revolution of the 1980's
[1.3.1]](../../RISC_Revolution_of_the_1980_s_banner_1.gif)
In the 1980's, compilers and integrated circuit technology improved to the point that even high-performance software could be written in a high-level language.
This freed the ISA to be designed to optimize the performance/cost ratio.
The radical redesign of ISAs that resulted is often called the Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) revolution.
