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So let's not forget the larger impact here: - It's a CPU architecture who's primary R&D&Fab is outside the US, and in fact in China. - As people move to mobil

So let's not forget the larger impact here: - It's a CPU architecture who's primary R&D&Fab is outside the US, and in fact in China. - As people move to mobile, they could just as easily to Longsoon over ARM. - Hey, guess where there's a giant mobile market? Separately, can these run Irix? I miss Irix.

photosinensis 11y ago
They might be able to run Irix. But why would you use an operating system that hasn't been updated in 9 years? It's not going to have sufficient crypto support to be useful. That said, the smartphone market in China has been dominated by ARM chips. The real question is whether there's enough market demand for a MIPS-based architecture right now, or if the Chinese government can drive demand away from ARM and towards MIPS.
- yellowapple 11y ago
  > But why would you use an operating system that hasn't been updated in 9 years? The same reason why people still run Apple ][s and Commodore 64s and old DOS machines: nostalgia. I mean, if I were to try and build myself a real Jurassic Park workstation, it would be a disservice for it to be running Linux on an x86. No, I want the real deal: IRIX on MIPS, complete with an animated Nedry confronting unauthorized users with "Ah ah ah! You didn't say the magic word! Ah ah ah!". And yes, I'm aware of jurassicsystems.com, but it just doesn't feel the same. It also doesn't have `fsn`, so I can't zoom around my filesystem in 3-D while muttering that "it's a UNIX system; I know this!".
- lallysingh 11y ago
  Just to see Irix again. For driving demand, they could always have tariffs, etc. If they applied to companies manufacturing computers in China, that'd have a massive impact globally.
spitfire 11y ago
Those were my first thoughts too... Specifically China is pulling a Toyota here. Coming in on the low end where "It doesn't matter".
- hga 11y ago
  This is "the low end of 64 bit CPUs", though, MIPS is already competitive, along with ARM, in low end 32 bit CPUs, and Intel's still in that space along with I don't know who else. So what's worth the jump to 64 bits? And note Loongson/MIPS has competition from ARM as well (aren't their 64 bit ARM cores in iPhones now?), and maybe RISC-V, they're working on an out-of-order microarchtecture now (it's an open core, $0 IP to use).

photosinensis 11y ago

They might be able to run Irix. But why would you use an operating system that hasn't been updated in 9 years? It's not going to have sufficient crypto support to be useful. That said, the smartphone market in China has been dominated by ARM chips. The real question is whether there's enough market demand for a MIPS-based architecture right now, or if the Chinese government can drive demand away from ARM and towards MIPS.

yellowapple 11y ago
> But why would you use an operating system that hasn't been updated in 9 years? The same reason why people still run Apple ][s and Commodore 64s and old DOS machines: nostalgia. I mean, if I were to try and build myself a real Jurassic Park workstation, it would be a disservice for it to be running Linux on an x86. No, I want the real deal: IRIX on MIPS, complete with an animated Nedry confronting unauthorized users with "Ah ah ah! You didn't say the magic word! Ah ah ah!". And yes, I'm aware of jurassicsystems.com, but it just doesn't feel the same. It also doesn't have `fsn`, so I can't zoom around my filesystem in 3-D while muttering that "it's a UNIX system; I know this!".
lallysingh 11y ago
Just to see Irix again. For driving demand, they could always have tariffs, etc. If they applied to companies manufacturing computers in China, that'd have a massive impact globally.

spitfire 11y ago

Those were my first thoughts too... Specifically China is pulling a Toyota here. Coming in on the low end where "It doesn't matter".

hga 11y ago
This is "the low end of 64 bit CPUs", though, MIPS is already competitive, along with ARM, in low end 32 bit CPUs, and Intel's still in that space along with I don't know who else. So what's worth the jump to 64 bits? And note Loongson/MIPS has competition from ARM as well (aren't their 64 bit ARM cores in iPhones now?), and maybe RISC-V, they're working on an out-of-order microarchtecture now (it's an open core, $0 IP to use).