You are now entering the PC Anatomy portal

ISA can stand for Instruction Set Architecture, which is the abstract model of a computer that defines the interface between software and hardware, or Industry Standard Architecture, a legacy expansion bus for PCs. As an Instruction Set Architecture, it specifies the instruction set, memory addressing, registers, and data types, allowing software to run on different hardware implementations of the same architecture. As Industry Standard Architecture, it is a specific type of bus used to connect expansion cards like network and video cards to a PC's motherboard.

Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)

Definition: An abstract model that defines the language a computer's processor understands. It is the interface between the software and hardware.

Components: Defines the instruction set, registers, memory addressing modes, and data types.

Function: A software program written for a specific ISA can run on any hardware processor that is an implementation of the same ISA, ensuring binary compatibility and portability.