20 ms·

I remember listening to some guy from ImgTec brag about how MIPS is the 4th biggest instruction set in the world as if MIPS had like 20% market share rather 1%

I remember listening to some guy from ImgTec brag about how MIPS is the 4th biggest instruction set in the world as if MIPS had like 20% market share rather 1% or whetever ridiculous market share ImgTec had bought their way into. That was literally at the peak when ImgTec were on top of the world, they'd just built a new campus and were spending like there was no tomorrow. Then Apple drank their milkshake, and they had to sell everything. Even then though, it was really bizarre that anyone was still trying to make MIPs a thing. MIPS has been the walking dead for a couple of decades now. It's really time to let go. Especially since there are actually interesting things happening in the ISA space with RISC-V.

AnimalMuppet 7y ago
Pardon my ignorance, but... is RISC-V all that much more alive than MIPS? My impression is that MIPS has a past, RISC-V may have a future, but neither has much of a present.
- simcop2387 7y ago
  For desktop or server class stuff, RISC-V is still shaking out but there are attempts to make it happen on-going right now. For everything else you've got companies like Western Digital that have committed to shipping a billion[2] RISC-V processors for their own devices, and many others. [1] Just take a look at their membership page for people funding or helping develop the processors, https://riscv.org/members-at-a-glance/ https://riscv.org/members-at-a-glance/ [1] https://www.westerndigital.com/company/innovations/risc-v https://www.westerndigital.com/company/innovations/risc-v [2] https://www.extremetech.com/computing/281891-western-digital-announces-plans-for-its-own-risc-v-processor https://www.extremetech.com/computing/281891-western-digital...
- opencl 7y ago
  The only hardware actually currently shipping in meaningful quantities are a handful of microcontrollers. The U540 is pretty much a Raspberry Pi level of SoC but it's only shipped in tiny quantities on expensive dev boards. It's just too new for anything else yet, the higher performance stuff takes years from the start of design work to shipping silicon.
ncmncm 7y ago
There are probably more MIPS cores in currently powered-up equipment than all other 32-bit ISAs combined. Another billion will be manufactured in the next month or two. There's dead and there's dead. MIPS is only dead in the way that internal combustion engines for transportation are dead.

AnimalMuppet 7y ago

Pardon my ignorance, but... is RISC-V all that much more alive than MIPS? My impression is that MIPS has a past, RISC-V may have a future, but neither has much of a present.

simcop2387 7y ago
For desktop or server class stuff, RISC-V is still shaking out but there are attempts to make it happen on-going right now. For everything else you've got companies like Western Digital that have committed to shipping a billion[2] RISC-V processors for their own devices, and many others. [1] Just take a look at their membership page for people funding or helping develop the processors, https://riscv.org/members-at-a-glance/ https://riscv.org/members-at-a-glance/ [1] https://www.westerndigital.com/company/innovations/risc-v https://www.westerndigital.com/company/innovations/risc-v [2] https://www.extremetech.com/computing/281891-western-digital-announces-plans-for-its-own-risc-v-processor https://www.extremetech.com/computing/281891-western-digital...
opencl 7y ago
The only hardware actually currently shipping in meaningful quantities are a handful of microcontrollers. The U540 is pretty much a Raspberry Pi level of SoC but it's only shipped in tiny quantities on expensive dev boards. It's just too new for anything else yet, the higher performance stuff takes years from the start of design work to shipping silicon.

ncmncm 7y ago

There are probably more MIPS cores in currently powered-up equipment than all other 32-bit ISAs combined. Another billion will be manufactured in the next month or two. There's dead and there's dead. MIPS is only dead in the way that internal combustion engines for transportation are dead.