Comment Re:Specs On Paper & Buyer Mindset (Score 2) 198
RISC is not worse as a general purpose computer. They do not only offer gains in specific problem domains, they are a trade-off that are complementary to CISC. If storage is limited, or you have a very slow bottleneck getting to the CPU then CISC might be better. Generally RISC is better as single-cycle instructions means it is easier to parallise instructions and less expensive for branch prediction misses.
Most CISC instruction sets are reduced to RISC micro-code within modern processors. Take a look at the silicon for any x86 CPU these days. This translator takes most of the transistors and consumes most of the power. It also makes them more expensive than RISC, which is why RISC is used in nearly every single mobile phone. Both Apple and LG use the ARM RISC instruction set for their CPU, AFAIK.
However what you mean by CPU is actually the SoC (System on a Chip), which is effectively a computer on a chip. It integrates a lot of other specialist functions onto the chip such as graphics (GPU) and the latest 5S has hardware image processor built in. The bonus is reduced production cost and bottleneck. The penalty is reduced upgradability. The Apple chips are made by Samsung so I doubt they have anything Samsung doesn't know about on there.
Phillip.