Growing requirements for audio, video and other digital signal processing (DSP) tasks are increasing the performance demands on applications processors inside many mobile products. This trend is causing OEMs to reconsider their system and hardware configurations - and therefore the microprocessor architecture upon which the system relies - to maximize performance capabilities while prolonging battery life.
Below is a partial listing of MIPS-Based mobile devices available to consumers. For more design wins, visit the company's Web site at www.mips.com.
"We chose the MIPS architecture for our digital camera processor because the technology enables our team to design products that maximize overall system performance while minimizing any impact to battery life," said Coby Sella, vice president and general manager of Zoran's mobile division. "The power savings is achieved in the design of our COACH processor and in the system architecture we deliver to the digital camera manufacturers. The success of the design has been proven by Zoran's growing market share of the overall digital camera market."
"For a growing list of customers, the MIPS architecture is the choice for a range of mobile applications because it uses low power to deliver the right performance at the right price point," said Russ Bell, vice president of marketing at MIPS Technologies. "We achieve this unique offering by leveraging standard off-the-shelf memories, libraries and EDA flows from industry leading vendors. Moving forward, MIPS Technologies will continue to deliver optimized products that meet the power and performance demands of high-growth embedded markets."
Why MIPS for Mobile Application Processors
The MIPS architecture offers low power advantages that are key to SOC designers targeting battery-powered devices. At the heart of the MIPS architecture is a streamlined architecture that has met the demands of generations of applications over a 20-year period. The MIPS instruction set offers 32-element register files (not 16, as with other architectures), which reduce the need to access embedded cache and main memory to retrieve data. Fewer clock cycles are needed to perform most tasks allowing the system to run at lower frequencies. These characteristics translate into lower core and system power consumption while operating at maximum microprocessor performance.
MIPS Technologies' customers may gain design flexibility through access to ISA licenses, optimized hard macros and synthesizable cores, which enable the optimization of silicon die area and power configurations to maximize battery life. Additionally, MIPS Technologies' line of the industry's highest performing cores offer customers more system headroom, so future upgrades can be implemented in software easily and quickly.
MIPS-Based Cores More Power Efficient
Below is a comparison of MIPS Technologies cores to similar products from ARM Holdings plc. The MIPS-Based cores were developed using standard off-the-shelf libraries and memories and without voltage scaling techniques. All numbers were taken from public material on the companies' Web sites as of this announcement's date, and all products are listed as core-only configurations.
| MIPS32® 4KEcâ„¢ core1 | ARM 926EJ-S core1 | |
| Best Frequency: | 233 MHz | 250 MHz |
| Best Performance: | 356 DMIPS | 300 DMIPS |
| Power: | 0.25 mW/MHz | 0.35 mW/MHz |
| Area: | 1.7 mm2 | 2.2 mm2 |
| Power Efficiency: | 0.16 mW/DMIPS | 0.29 mW/DMIPS |
| MIPS32 24Kcâ„¢ core1 | ARM 1136J-S core1 | |
| Best Frequency: | 400 MHz | 333 MHz |
| Best Performance: | 576 DMIPS | 400 DMIPS |
| Power: | 0.58 mW/MHz | 0.6 mW/MHz |
| Area: | 2.8 mm2 | 4.5mm2 |
| Power Efficiency: | 0.40 mW/DMIPS | 0.50 mW/DMIPS |
Shipping MIPS-Based Mobile Devices
The MIPS architecture is gaining key design wins in a range of battery-operated devices. OEMs shipping mobile MIPS-Based products include Canon, Casio, Fujifilm, Fujitsu, JVC, Minolta, PENTAX, Philips, Samsung and Sony. MIPS Technologies licensees providing innovative and low-power MIPS-Based silicon include AMD, Broadcom, LSI Logic, NEC, Philips Semiconductors, Sunplus, Thrane and Thrane, Toshiba and Zoran.
MIPS-Based mobile devices currently shipping or announced include:
Entertainment
Cameras
Computing/Communications
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1. Worst case conditions: 1.08V, 125C, slow silicon
About MIPS Technologies
MIPS Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital consumer and business applications. The company drives the broadest architectural alliance that is delivering 32- and 64-bit embedded RISC solutions. The company licenses its intellectual property to semiconductor companies, ASIC developers and system OEMs. MIPS Technologies and its licensees offer the widest range of robust, scalable processors in standard, custom, semi-custom and application-specific products. The company is based in Mountain View, Calif., and can be reached at +1 (650) 567-5000 or www.mips.com.