By: mas (a.delete@this.b.com), August 20, 2013 3:29 pm
Room: Moderated Discussions
Brett (ggtgp.delete@this.yahoo.com) on August 17, 2013 11:20 am wrote:
> Mark Roulo (nothanks.delete@this.xxx.com) on August 13, 2013 10:11 am wrote:
> > Brett (ggtgp.delete@this.yahoo.com) on August 12, 2013 6:50 pm wrote:
> > > Both ARM and PowerPC sold architecture licenses, while MIPS sued cloners.
> > > Lots of ARM and PowerPC choices, few MIPS choices.
> >
> > I don't know how far back this goes, but MIPS does have architectural licensees. Examples include:
> > *) Broadcom (according to Wiki)
> > *) The folks in China doing the Godson/Longsoon processor
> > *) Sandcraft
> > *) Cavium
> > *) STMicroelectronics
> >
> > One big difference is that ARM *only* licenses IP and does not sell chips. IBM (and
> > Motorola) still sell PowerPC chips as well as licenses. MIPS used to sell chips only,
> > then IP and now MIPS is owned by Imagination Technology (the folks that do the GPU used
> > in the iThingies) so will likely be a pure IP company (like ARM) for a while.
>
> Does Imagination Technology have a ARM architecture license? The company clearly needs a good high
> end ARM core to complement it's graphics technology. Clear to me that the former MIPS employees
> will be designing a ARM64 instruction decoder and pipeline for their new MIPS64 CPU design...
>
> Will MIPS as an instruction set exist in a decade with new products?
>
> I Figure ~2 years to redesign for ARM and then MIPS officially goes on life support.
>
> ~2 years is when Android or its replacement (Chrome?) will go 64bit, Imagination Technology
> will have the CPU-GPU combo parts to potentially dominate the high end of that market.
>
If you bothered to actually read IT's PRs and CCs you would see that they are going to aggressively go after ARM's marketshare with MIPs cores and why not, with inherent 4-way SMT and similar single-thread performance and even lower power than ARM usually, they make the better chips. IT exactly know what they bought on the cheap and it has nothing to do with being an ARM clone.
http://withimagination.imgtec.com/index.php/mips-processors/mips-series5-warrior-cpu-cores-the-next-revolution-in-cpu-ip
http://withimagination.imgtec.com/index.php/mips-processors/mips64-based-xlp900-series-processor-broadcom-are-multicore-multithreading-powerhouses
> Mark Roulo (nothanks.delete@this.xxx.com) on August 13, 2013 10:11 am wrote:
> > Brett (ggtgp.delete@this.yahoo.com) on August 12, 2013 6:50 pm wrote:
> > > Both ARM and PowerPC sold architecture licenses, while MIPS sued cloners.
> > > Lots of ARM and PowerPC choices, few MIPS choices.
> >
> > I don't know how far back this goes, but MIPS does have architectural licensees. Examples include:
> > *) Broadcom (according to Wiki)
> > *) The folks in China doing the Godson/Longsoon processor
> > *) Sandcraft
> > *) Cavium
> > *) STMicroelectronics
> >
> > One big difference is that ARM *only* licenses IP and does not sell chips. IBM (and
> > Motorola) still sell PowerPC chips as well as licenses. MIPS used to sell chips only,
> > then IP and now MIPS is owned by Imagination Technology (the folks that do the GPU used
> > in the iThingies) so will likely be a pure IP company (like ARM) for a while.
>
> Does Imagination Technology have a ARM architecture license? The company clearly needs a good high
> end ARM core to complement it's graphics technology. Clear to me that the former MIPS employees
> will be designing a ARM64 instruction decoder and pipeline for their new MIPS64 CPU design...
>
> Will MIPS as an instruction set exist in a decade with new products?
>
> I Figure ~2 years to redesign for ARM and then MIPS officially goes on life support.
>
> ~2 years is when Android or its replacement (Chrome?) will go 64bit, Imagination Technology
> will have the CPU-GPU combo parts to potentially dominate the high end of that market.
>
If you bothered to actually read IT's PRs and CCs you would see that they are going to aggressively go after ARM's marketshare with MIPs cores and why not, with inherent 4-way SMT and similar single-thread performance and even lower power than ARM usually, they make the better chips. IT exactly know what they bought on the cheap and it has nothing to do with being an ARM clone.
http://withimagination.imgtec.com/index.php/mips-processors/mips-series5-warrior-cpu-cores-the-next-revolution-in-cpu-ip
http://withimagination.imgtec.com/index.php/mips-processors/mips64-based-xlp900-series-processor-broadcom-are-multicore-multithreading-powerhouses