So, does all of this optimizing of the RX instruction set pay off? Yes! Five different embedded applications were benchmarked by Renesas using the RX and a Cortex-M3 based MCU. For all benchmarks the compilers were set to optimize code size for the smallest memory footprint. The RX compiler produced code that was up to 28% smaller than the Cortex-M3 based MCU. One can see that a lot of precious program storage is wasted in the M3-based MCU by the fixed instruction lengths used versus the variable-byte-length instructions of the RX.