MIPS Technologies and SAI Technologies Demonstrate Performance Benefits of Multi-Threading for LTE Systems

Achieved Performance Boost of over 65% for  LTE Baseband Processing in Mobile Devices

MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS, Barcelona – February 28, 2012 MIPS Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: MIPS), a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital home, networking and mobile applications, and SAI Technology, a leader in secure wireless communications technologies for the worldwide mobile wireless market, announced that they achieved a performance increase of over 65% across various packet sizes when leveraging MIPS’ multi-threaded technology running SAI’s LTE Protocol Stack for User Equipment (UE) terminals. The results demonstrate how utilizing two threads, or Virtual Processing Elements (VPEs), rather than a single thread, can dramatically improve the efficiency of baseband processing in mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

For many of today’s smart, connected consumer devices, it is a common strategy to leverage multiple cores to achieve the high performance and Quality of Service (QoS) needed. But leveraging multiple cores can lead to an increase in silicon area and power consumption. For many applications, an additional or alternative strategy is to leverage multi-threading technology, which can provide a significant performance boost without a significant increase in die size or power consumption.

For this demonstration, SAI leveraged its system-level expertise in mobile applications to identify the best way to partition the control plane and data plane elements of the LTE baseband stack across the two  virtual processors, or threads, in the MIPS core. The results collected by SAI on the hardware platform, which emulates a complete mobile network passing triple-play (voice, video and data) traffic, suggests that the combination of the MIPS core and SAI stack can support CAT 1 to CAT 4 performance in LTE user equipment with very efficient area and low power in a single-core footprint.

“MIPS’ patented multi-threading technology provides clear performance benefits for a wide range of systems. This latest achievement demonstrates the benefits of multi-threading for mobile devices, and we anticipate that the benefits can scale to base station solutions as well, particularly in the burgeoning small cell equipment area and machine-to-machine (M2M) devices. We are pleased to team with SAI to enable customers who leverage MIPS’ multi-threading technology and SAI’s LTE solutions to build a better baseband,” said Gideon Intrater, vice president of marketing, MIPS Technologies.

“Our complete solution complies with the latest LTE specification, has completed interoperability testing, and has already been approved for use with a major carrier. With our solution running on the MIPS multi-threaded core, we achieved a significant performance boost that was virtually ‘free’ in terms of die area and power consumption. This solution can be a powerful differentiator as companies develop next-generation 4G mobile devices, and with the production-ready solution, companies can gain a time-to-market advantage,” said Dr. Venkat Rayapati, CEO, SAI Technologies.

About SAI’s LTE Protocol Stack

The SAI LTE Protocol Stack is implemented for User Equipment (UE) terminals compliant to the 3GPP Release 8 and Release 9 specifications. It consists of a fully optimized for Layer 2, Layer 3 and NAS LTE protocol software, enabling high uplink and downlink data rates supporting Cat-1 to Cat-4. The module has been integrated and validated with IOT with multiple third-party commercial processors and solutions. The architecture is designed to be scalable and portable to different hardware platforms and operating systems with optimum processor utilization and low memory footprint. SAI’s LTE UE and eNB stacks support today multiple operating systems: Linux, Android, Vx Works etc. The LTE protocol stack is supported by a suite of advanced development, test and verification tools to enable rapid product development. SAI also provides dedicated support and customization services to assist with porting, integration and end-to-end LTE system verification from lab tests to field trials.

About SAI Technology Inc.

SAI Technology Inc. (SAI), headquartered in Silicon Valley, is a global leader in Mobile Wireless 3G/4G LTE, WiMAX, WiFi 802.11n, 802.11ac, M2M and Unified Mobile Security system technology solutions and other advanced wireless communications market segments. SAI designs and develops 3G/4G System products such as Routers, Backhaul Products, Small Cells, Cloud Devices, M2M devices and software applications. SAI is a privately-held, leading advanced wireless technology company, and has development centers in Santa Clara (USA) and Chennai (India). For more information, visit www.saitechnology.com

About MIPS Technologies, Inc.

MIPS Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: MIPS) is a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores that power some of the world’s most popular products for the home entertainment, communications, networking and portable multimedia markets. These include broadband devices from Linksys, DTVs and digital consumer devices from Sony, DVD recordable devices from Pioneer, digital set-top boxes from Motorola, network routers from Cisco, 32-bit microcontrollers from Microchip Technology and laser printers from Hewlett-Packard. Founded in 1998, MIPS Technologies is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with offices worldwide. For more information, contact (408) 530-5000 or visitwww.mips.com