MIPS Technologies is quite aware that if it misses the Tablet train, there may never be another chance for it to tout its talent against both Intel and Arm core CPU designs. So this week it has come out with the new MIPS32 1074K Coherent Processing System core design, which it says can deliver 2.5 times the performance of an Intel Atom, from a smaller piece of silicon. The Californian company is targeting the running of Android, as well as set tops and Tablet formats.
The 1074K CPS could approach 1.5 GHz, says MIPs, when implemented in 40 nm geometry and is aimed at internet-connected multimedia products such as digital televisions, Blu-ray players and set-tops, home wireless networking products and tablet computers running Android.
MIPS lines up on the outside lane of a pretty busy race track for CPU designs, with the inside tracks held currently by ARM and Intel, and within the ARM camp Apple, Samsung, Qualcomm and Nvidia all pushing strong designs. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon has attracted something like 44 design wins in smart books and tablets, while Nvidia has soaked up many of the rest. Apple has created its own chip for the iPad, with Samsung’s help. So design wins for Tablets are going to be thin on the ground for MIPs.
‘The integration of the web-connected experience into DTVs, STBs, and Blu-ray disc players was a key motivation behind development of the 1074K CPS,’ said Art Swift, vice president of marketing and business development, MIPS Technologies. ‘MIPS Technologies has many years of experience in multicore technologies, and we are expanding our multiprocessor leadership with this newest member of our CMP family that makes higher-end multicore performance easy, accessible, and affordable to implement.’
MIPS Technologies says that its superscalar MIPS32 74K cores has been licensed by more than 20 companies, and its multi-threaded multiprocessing MIPS32 1004K CPS has been licensed by 10 companies. As yet the company has not released any names of licensees for this new design.
MIPs says that enhancements to the underlying 74K architecture speed up C++ apps including web browsing, as well as JavaScript engines and work better with a number of open source projects such as Webkit.
The 1074K CPS is supported by tools from CodeSourcery, CriticalBlue and symmetric multiprocessing versions of Linux. The new 1074K CPS will be generally available in October 2010.