NEW YORK -- MIPS Technologies last week rolled out a newgeneration of microprocessor cores called Aptiv.
With the new cores' smaller die size and reduced energyconsumption compared to ARM's midrange core like A15, MIPS is hoping that thenew family of cores can put the companyback on track. "We will gain leadershipagain" on the competitive microprocessor IP market, according to GideonIntrater, vice president of marketing at MIPS. "We believe that Aptiv can beat A15 by a large margin."
MIPS is at a crossroads, however. Some analysts see Aptivarriving in the market a little too late.
Indeed, until this roll out, MIPS had not introduced newcores for two years. Meanwhile, its rival ARM busily pumped out a series of newmicroprocessor cores.
Why did MIPS, once a technology leader, fall behind? Oneexplanation is MIPS' acquisition of ChipIdea, an analog and mixed-signal IPsupplier, in 2007. This deal apparently posed a huge distraction. MIPS' planthen was to offer its customers a "virtual SoC" by creating a strong IP arsenal-- going beyond microprocessor cores -- to mount a challenge to ARM. Themarriage ended, however, after 18 months. "Once we decided to sell ChipIdea in 2009, we were able to put anemphasis back on microprocessor core development," said Intrater.
MIPS is also facing an even bigger upheaval: the company'spotential sale. Recent speculation that "MIPS is up for sale" has not dieddown, and MIPS has neither confirmed nor denied the reports. Gary Mobley,senior research analyst at The Benchmark Company, calls the sale "a distinctpossibility," as MIPS has been shopped around at various times in the past 10years. But he added: "It is important tonote that if the company intends to sell, it better do so soon before potentiallicensees grow more concerned regarding MIPS' long-term processor roadmap."
Against this backdrop, MIPS is betting on Aptiv to turnthings around. The Aptiv family, consisting of high-performance proAptiv,multi-threaded interAptiv and highly-efficient microAptiv, is the fruit of thecompany's substantial investment and development efforts over the last threeyears. While the Aptiv family addresses distinct performance levels forapplications across mobile, home entertainment, networking and embedded, MIPS'sfocus is squarely on mobile.
"We see the mobile market the most important, because ofsheer size," said Intrater. "Even if we get a small share, it makes a bigdifference."
But then, the $64,000 question is: If you are already an ARMlicensee (most likely you are, if you are in the mobile market), why evenconsider licensing MIPS now?
MIPS' Intrater said, "Companies are upgrading their coresall the time. We think that our Aptiv can give them compelling reasons toswitch to MIPS core."
EE Times asked a few industry analysts for their opinions.
1. Need to keep thecompetition healthy
J Scott Gardner, asenior analyst at The Linley Group, explained: "SoC developers need healthycompetition among the suppliers of licensable CPU cores. MIPS is the mostviable alternative to ARM for most of these applications.
"Even though ARM hasgrown much larger than MIPS, the ARM licensees will undoubtedly give someconsideration to MIPS Aptiv as a way to differentiate products and perhaps gainnegotiating leverage with ARM."
Jon Peddie, presidentof Jon Peddie Research, said, "You need to have a second source." But he added:"It depends on the platform. Mobile phones will be a tough sell, tablets arebetter, game consoles, STBs, industrial controls, routers, automotive, etc areopportunities for MIPS."
2. It's all about power efficiency and cost
Based on published EEMBC CoreMark performance estimates, theAptiv family "should deliver better performance per MHz than any of the corescurrently offered by ARM," according to Gardner. "The ProAptiv has 50% higherCoreMark/MHz than Cortext-A9, and Microprocessor Report expects that ProAptivwill have significantly higher CoreMark/MHz scores than Cortex-A15. The higherIPC should allow operation at a lower frequency and power than competing ARMcores. For many of these applications, power efficiency and cost have becomethe primary differentiators."
In other words, "When compared to systems based onCortex-A15, an SoC designer using MIPS Aptiv should be able to integrate almosttwice as many CPU cores into the same silicon area and power budget," Gardnerexplained.
3. Heritage and range
In Peddie's mind, MIPS' "powerful instruction set with aheritage going back to the first 64-bit workstations and servers" should stillbe one of the big reasons to consider MIPS even today. Further, "MIPS is theonly 128-bit processor -- Sony's Emotion engine in the PS2," he said. MIPS alsooffers "a good range of products with flexibility from 8-bit to 64 bit," Peddieadded.
4. China factor
Not to be missed in considering MIPS is perhaps MIPS cores'impact in China. Peddie noted that "Chinese homegrown Loongson processor isbased on MIPS, and if you think having instruction-set compatibility with it isimportant (and I do) then it's a slam dunk no brainer."
This story as originally posted by EETimes.
