MIPS to go after the cellphone market -- really

Junko Yoshida, EE Times
(10/07/2009 12:30 PM EDT)

MANHASSET, N.Y. — MIPS Technologies Inc. is going after the cellphone market. Seriously.

ARM currently dominates -- hands down -- the global cellphone market, and many industry observers scoff at MIPS as a viable competitor for future of mobile phone designs. But MIPS insists that they're all wrong.

Art Swift, vice president of marketing at MIPS, told EE Times that MIPS-based handsets will be shipped over the next several years. He noted that MIPS now sees its licensees making actual progress.

The company's strategy of riding the Android wave is well known. Google initially created Android as open source software platform for smart phones using ARM processors. But MIPS also saw an opening since OEMs already using MIPS cores are interested in adopting the code for a broad range of systems, including netbooks, e-books, digital picture frames and medical devices.

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