[HN Gopher] Loose Lips Sink MIPS ___________________________________________________________________ Loose Lips Sink MIPS Author : jakobdabo Score : 34 points Date : 2020-09-07 19:44 UTC (3 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.eejournal.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.eejournal.com) | userbinator wrote: | The patents expired a long time ago, and MIPS has always occupied | the ultra-low-end in things like routers and phones. RISC-V may | take its place in the future, due to how similar it is. | saagarjha wrote: | ARM was probably what sank MIPS; it seems like the move to China | is just a result of the company going under without any way to | really make money. | baybal2 wrote: | Moribund sales, and one decade under leadership of lawyers, and | bankers sank the company. | | This all started at the time when ARM was ready to sell their | cores on USB sticks to noname Chinese companies. | xbar wrote: | Thanks Apple. | [deleted] | inportb wrote: | Cool story... but I'd like to learn more about the titular loose | lips. | gumby wrote: | > "A license for all of mainland China has already been sold, | lock, stock and barrel." This is precisely what the U.S. | government was trying to avoid when it intervened in the previous | acquisition of MIPS Technologies. | | Why does the U?S? Government care? The MIPS is a mature design | that has suffered from neglect for many years and while its | useful I can't imagine how it could be any sort of strategic | asset. | | What am I missing? | jeffrallen wrote: | There are probably military systems that use MIPS processors. | baybal2 wrote: | Do you think that Chinese Electronic Warfare companies care | about licensing rights? | gumby wrote: | Sure, I believe I remember an avionics design win but can't | find the reference right now. Those design wins wouldn't be | affected by any such purchases (chips are fabbed by a third | party and any procurement contract wouldn't permit any mask | change -- quite the opposite). | | But any new design would pick a new part anyway, and MIPS | could simply be dropped from the candidate list -- except | there would be no reason to: this deal is China-specific and | any US supplier would be buying a license from imagination -- | or from a merchant chip supplier. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2020-09-07 23:00 UTC)