have complex instructions that take up multiple clock cycles for execution. RISC processors have simple instructions taking about one clock cycle.

are highly pipelined. RISC processors are normally not pipelined or less pipelined.

transfer complexity to the compiler that executes the program. The complexity of RISC lies in the micro program.

have a fixed instruction format. RISC processors have variable instruction format.

have multiple register sets. RISC processors only have a single register set.