MIPS instruction set will soon be open source, sources said.
Eetimes reported on Monday that Wave Computing will open source MIPS when it releases its latest MIPS instruction set and MIPS kernel R6 in the first quarter of next year. MIPS is owned by Wave Computing, which acquired MIPS Technologies in June.
MIPS is a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC). MIPS plays an important role in RISC processors. MIPS processors based on the MIPS instruction set were the most used processors in the world until 1999. MIPS instruction set emphasizes on the design concept of software and hardware cooperation to improve performance, while simplifying hardware design. Through the development of MIPS I, MIPS II, MIPS III, MIPS IV to MIPS V and embedded instruction set MIPS16, MIPS32 to MIPS64, MIPS has become very mature.
Risc-v, the open source instruction set, is gaining momentum this year. Due to its simple and open features, it has attracted more than 100 technology companies, including IBM, NXP, Western Digital, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Samsung, Google, Huawei and Tesla, to join its camp. The industry has also been building an ecosystem around it. ARM and other competitors caused a huge impact.
At present, the open source RISC-V seems to be promising, but MIPS has more mature ecology, more complete and more mature supporting software than RISC-V. It has also proven itself commercially, shipping 8.5 billion MIPs-based CPU chips since 2000. It also includes DSP and SIMD extensions, while risC-V extensions are still being developed.
Can MIPS return to its peak through open source?