I love the Chip Letter, but confess to a sizable backlog. Nevertheless, I read the recent MIPS post immediately. How could I not? I joined MIPS as VP of Engineering in 2004 not long after the company exited their custom and semi-custom 64-bit CPU business and refocused on 32-bit processor IP.
The problem had been that games and printers are classic “razor blade business models” - making money, on game or ink cartridges, almost regardless of the CPU cost. During MIPS extended focus on 64-bit, well after its spin out from SGI, the upstart Arm moved steadily along their 32-bit roadmap, until they dominated the far broader embedded market and, crucially, won the smartphone (which created a wide moat after the 3rd party app store developed).
When we (MIPS) refocused on 32-bit IP we could beat, sometimes easily beat, Arm’s performance metrics but by then that wasn’t enough to dislodge Arm; the unit shipment and revenue gap grew inexorably. Today, I’m delighted to see MIPS’ outstanding RTL retargeted and reincarnated as RISC-V. As many of you know, the base RISC-V ISA is MIPS-I with minor tweaks, however, the vastly different RISC-V business model offers real opportunity at MIPS’ new home, Globalfoundries.
The MIPS history deserves a full book. Meanwhile - shameless plug - you might enjoy the story of my time at MIPS: Section 5 of Silicon Planet (Amazon).
I love the Chip Letter, but confess to a sizable backlog. Nevertheless, I read the recent MIPS post immediately. How could I not? I joined MIPS as VP of Engineering in 2004 not long after the company exited their custom and semi-custom 64-bit CPU business and refocused on 32-bit processor IP.
The problem had been that games and printers are classic “razor blade business models” - making money, on game or ink cartridges, almost regardless of the CPU cost. During MIPS extended focus on 64-bit, well after its spin out from SGI, the upstart Arm moved steadily along their 32-bit roadmap, until they dominated the far broader embedded market and, crucially, won the smartphone (which created a wide moat after the 3rd party app store developed).
When we (MIPS) refocused on 32-bit IP we could beat, sometimes easily beat, Arm’s performance metrics but by then that wasn’t enough to dislodge Arm; the unit shipment and revenue gap grew inexorably. Today, I’m delighted to see MIPS’ outstanding RTL retargeted and reincarnated as RISC-V. As many of you know, the base RISC-V ISA is MIPS-I with minor tweaks, however, the vastly different RISC-V business model offers real opportunity at MIPS’ new home, Globalfoundries.
The MIPS history deserves a full book. Meanwhile - shameless plug - you might enjoy the story of my time at MIPS: Section 5 of Silicon Planet (Amazon).
—Pat Hays