I know some examples are x96, x64 and arm. Are they abstract models of computation, like Turing machines?
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In general, computers perform actions by following a list of instructions. The “instruction set” is the list of instructions that a computer processor can physically perform. These are the most basic operations that a processor does. For each instruction in the instruction set, a processor has a circuit that represents that operation. Some common instructions are things like reading a value from a memory address or adding two numbers together, for which a processor will have a memory read circuit and an addition circuit. To do a more complicated command like adding 3 numbers together, a computer will use it’s circuit that adds two numbers together twice. Every more complex action that a computer does like loading an image or clicking a link on a website, ends up being carried out by the processor as a list of instructions from the instruction set.
A related concept is assembly programming. While most programming languages have many complicated commands, assembly programming typically only supports commands direct from the instruction set. Each single command in assembly will tell a simple processor to run a single logic circuit.
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