MIPS: Underdog or Dead Horse?

Junko Yoshida, Chief International Correspondent, EETimes
9/27/2017 00:01 AM EDT

MIPS still has a revenue stream. It's got multi-threading ARM doesn't have. To think of the semiconductor industry losing the only legitimate alternative CPU IP to ARM would be "a real shame," some say.

Imagination Technologies’ announcements last week — selling itself to Canyon Bridge while agreeing to sell its MIPS CPU business to Tallwood Venture Capital — have some industry observers scratching their heads.

They asked: “Who wants MIPS now?”

Mike Demler, senior analyst at the Linley Group, summed up the general sentiment: MIPS “is an OLD CPU architecture.”

My colleague Rick Merritt also observed, “MIPS doesn’t have much of an ecosystem. These days, it’s all ARM and x86.”

First, I wondered if things might be a little different in China.

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