Xref: utzoo misc.invest:11099 comp.sys.mips:1367 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!ucla-cs!oahu!frazier From: frazier@oahu.cs.ucla.edu (Greg Frazier) Newsgroups: misc.invest,comp.sys.mips Subject: Re: Why so much MIPS action? Message-ID: Date: 12 Feb 91 18:01:12 GMT References: <1991Feb12.163945.27695@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> Sender: news@cs.ucla.edu (Shemp News Account) Organization: UCLA, Computer Science Department Lines: 37 Nntp-Posting-Host: oahu.cs.ucla.edu schwartz@alpha.ces.cwru.edu (David G. Schwartz) writes: >Over the last ~2-3 weeks Mips Computer Systems (MIPS) has gone >from around 10 to 16-7/8 (Feb 11 close). What's the story with these >guys? Anyone seen projected earnings for '91? Do they really have a >good product line? Are they the "SUN" of the '90s? >What do the net.experts have to say about this? Well, I'm not expert, but... MIPS has been fairly successfully competing with Sun for a share in the workstation CPU market. Sun has backed itself into a bit of a hole by using the SPARC architecture, which is a very stripped-down RISC with very few back doors for improvement. In addition, Sun has committed itself to this architecture by trying to promote it as an industry-wide "standard" for CPU's (why anyone would want to standardize CPU's is beyond me). Finally, MIPS just made a "technology announcement" (as opposed to a product announcement) that their next generation of chips (R4000) will be 64-bit CPU's, as opposed to the 32-bit CPU's which are currently used. People have been projecting that 64-bit CPU's would enter the market in the '93-'94 time frame - by announcing now, MIPS is allowing their vendors and clients to gear up for the new chips, hopefully smoothing their entry into the market. Looks like a smart move, but who knows what Sun, IBM, etc. have up their sleaves. Oh, Compaq and Motorola have also made announcements to the effect that Compaq intends to use the R4000 in its next generation of workstations, and Motorola is going to support OS/2 for the R4000 (not that big a deal, since apparently they already have it running on the R3000). -- Greg Frazier frazier@CS.UCLA.EDU !{ucbvax,rutgers}!ucla-cs!frazier