RISC-V has started to gain great popularity And this has already set some precedents as there is a change in the processor environment. The development of the MIPS processor architecture is now stopped and MIPS company will start manufacturing RISC-V-based chips. The new MIPS company, formed by Wave Computing Inc. and its subsidiaries, including MIPS Technologies, the processor technology company focused on commercializing RISC-based processor architectures and IP cores, joins the RISC field. -V, abandoning its homonymous architecture.
Silicon maker MIPS is one of the oldest RISC chip makers, used in various systems since the late 80s. Characterized by clean and efficient designs, which allow adaptation to various applications, this company has been one of the most innovative on the market during its heyday, so much so that the Windows operating system had a MIPS port in the early 1990s. However, the company had to contend with growing market share, weaker and at risk of bankruptcy in recent years.
MIPS has passed through many hands in recent years.
In 2018, MIPS was owned by Imagination Technologies, but soon the company had its own financial problems and had to sell MIPS assets to Wave Computing. Wave was developing its unique AI acceleration hardware on a general-purpose MIPS processor and then bought the entire MIPS organization. The change seemed unusual and somewhat annoying, given that they had already acquired the necessary intellectual property license. Over time, it began to appear that the MIPS side of the business was the most stable part of the company.
Wave Computing has finally announced the launch of the MIPS Opena initiative in early 2019. Therefore, there was hope that interest in competing with RISC-V and Arm again would increase. What was done during the first quarter of 2019.
“Those who participate in the MIPS Open program will have full access to the latest 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the MIPS architecture, free of charge (no license fees or royalties),” Wave Informática announced in 2018. The move should give new life to an architecture left for dead, but still used in many consumer products such as the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 game consoles. "The MIPS standard represents decades of innovation with just over 8.500 billion chips in commercial devices," recalls Wave Computing .
Wave finally went bankrupt last year and appeared last week under a new name, MIPS. The way that Wave was born again, coming out of bankruptcy, it is surprising, but not at all irrational. In fact, In its official statement, the new MIPS became a member of RISC-V International, the non-profit organization that administers the fully open ISA, largely replacing its current architecture with the standard.
This is a complete business model change, not just processor manufacturing. The former MIPS specialized in the licensing of intellectual property, like ARM, Ceva or Rambus. Companies like the old Wave Computing were its customers and processors like ARM and RISC-V were its competitors. Now the equation is reversed.
The company didn't have to go far to find a new architecture. RISC-V is the brainchild of Dave Patterson and his team at UC Berkeley, and he co-authored the Processor Design Reference Manual with John Hennessy at Stanford. Hennessy's microprocessor without Interconnected Pipe Stages (MIPS) predates the RISC-V by about two decades, but the two are remarkably similar in their underlying concept and philosophy.
The new MIPS is expected to continue to honor existing license agreements signed before the restructuring, which means that licensees can still legally build chips based on the original MIPS architecture and still have to pay royalties to the company.
In terms of licensee assistance, the horizon looks darker, although it is unclear whether the new MIPS has the staff or the will to provide substantial support to designers.
Source: https://www.prnewswire.com/