[HN Gopher] Loose Lips Sink MIPS
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       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.
        
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       (page generated 2020-09-07 23:00 UTC)