A
high-level language computer architecture (HLLCA) is a
computer architecture designed to be targeted by a specific
high-level language, rather than the architecture being dictated by hardware considerations. It is accordingly also termed
language-directed computer design, coined in and primarily used in the 1960s and 1970s. HLLCAs were popular in the 1960s and 1970s, but largely disappeared in the 1980s. This followed the dramatic failure of the
Intel 432 (1981) and the emergence of
optimizing compilers and
reduced instruction set computing (RISC) architecture and RISC-like CISC architectures, and the later development of
just-in-time compilation for HLLs. A detailed survey and critique can be found in .