3 ms·
Wait, MIPS still exists and has worthwhile technologies? I keep expecting this to be a retro branding exercise on something fundamentally different, like a Fia
by beat 8y ago
Wait, MIPS still exists and has worthwhile technologies?
I keep expecting this to be a retro branding exercise on something fundamentally different, like a Fiat 500 or a modern VW Beetle.
- seanmcdirmid 8y agoA bit ironic that this was reported via CNET, to think they are still around also.
- g8oz 8y agoUbiquiti routers use them...many of the cheap set-top boxes from a few years ago did too.
- woodrowbarlow 8y agoMIPS CPUs are still quite popular in embedded applications, although i don't see that lasting much longer. all of the PIC32 line by Microchip uses MIPS32 architecture, and many Broadcom SoCs are MIPSEL, especially their switching silicon.
- Gracana 8y agoI don't understand how Microchip is selling PIC32s. Their errata documents seem to list half the features as non-working, and very little is fixed with each new silicon revision. I like MIPS and I want to like PIC32, but they seem like junk.
- woodrowbarlow 8y agoi'm not sure why you're being downvoted. the PIC32 has serious problems, even as a hobby chip. my biggest gripe is that there's no good way to expand the flash and ram with external chips.
- alxlaz 8y agoIt does, and, well... possibly. MIPS has been relevant only in the embedded space for the last 10 years, if not more, and even saying that it is relevant in the embedded space is kindda pushing it at this point. The widespread availability of reference designs has ensured a pretty long lifespan in industries where that's especially relevant (see e.g. Atheros) but I think they're pretty much near the point of no return, where either they find a few niches that ARM can't (or won't) fit in, or they finally go the way of the Dodo. I think there are places in the market where there's room for them, and MIPS has its strongpoints (e.g. multithreading) that make it useful in some fields, such as real-time systems. To be honest, I have doubts that the people running the show will be able to pull it off but I really hope I'm wrong.
- logfromblammo 8y agoI don't see them as competitive with ARM and RISC-V. The last I heard of MIPS was some Chinese-fabbed chip that used the unencumbered set of MIPS opcodes--probably MIPS II--and a mostly-GNU OS to build the only computer on Earth (at the time) completely free of patent or licensing restrictions. It sounded like a stunt then, and I haven't heard anything about it since, so it probably was.
- cbHXBY1D 8y agoMIPS and RISC-V are very, very similar. Makes sense if you realize that they modified MIPS and started adding opcode space and features from there. Essentially, RISC-V is a modern do-over of MIPS, just with variable length instructions, floating point, and new opcode space and extensions.
- spilk 8y agoI think rms famously used one of those. Lemote Yeelong with the Loongson CPU.