TMCnet News
MIPS(R) adds virtualization to latest architecture releaseDec 10, 2012 (TELECOMWORLDWIRE via COMTEX) -- MIPS Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: MIPS) has announced a major release of the MIPS(R) architecture, encompassing the MIPS32(R), MIPS64(R) and microMIPS instruction set architectures. Based on work done over more than two years, Release 5 of the MIPS base architecture incorporates important functionality including virtualization and SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) modules. The MIPS SIMD architecture module allows efficient parallel processing of vector operations. This functionality is of growing importance across a range of applications. For consumer electronics such as mobile and home entertainment devices, SIMD provides support for media-rich applications including communications, audio, video, image and graphics processing. For enterprise applications, SIMD provides higher throughput data movement, especially important for scientific/high-performance computing and data mining. The MSA module provides a future-proof and extensible option for these applications. The MSA module will add a number of new instructions to the MIPS architecture, implemented with strict adherence to RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) design principles. From the beginning, MIPS architects designed the MSA with simple instructions that lead to less complex implementations. These simple instructions are also easy to support within high-level languages such as C or OpenCL. This enables fast and simple development of new code, as well as leverage of existing code. MIPS Technologies is a provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for home entertainment, networking, mobile and embedded applications. The company's website is at www.mips.com. Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected] |