Is MIPS Dead? Lawsuit, Bankruptcy, Maintainers Leaving and More • Hacker News Board

Re: Is MIPS Dead? Lawsuit, Bankruptcy, Maintainers Leaving and More

#91

Post by lsllc » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 4:05 PM UTC

vardump wrote: post #39

lsllc wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that there aren't really any practical (affordable!) RISC-V based Linux boards/modules. The Onion Omega2S is based on a MediaTek MT7688 (MIPS32LE) and since the demise of the CHIP-Pro, is really the only inexpensive surface mount Linux SoM left. https://onion.io/store/omega2s/

That's why I said also "future prospects". It's likely RISC-V will for the very least fill certain niches.

Right, I just hope they do it quickly! I'd love to see a low cost (e.g. RPi priced) RISC-V based SoM that runs Linux.

Re: Is MIPS Dead? Lawsuit, Bankruptcy, Maintainers Leaving and More

#92

Post by ncmncm » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 7:18 AM UTC

alsobrsp wrote: post #86

vetrom wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen live Alpha installations of windows NT driving RIPs at large format printing shops in the 90s. It was also not unheard of at VMS shops.

This reads like a Blade Runner quote.

Those C-beams.

Re: Is MIPS Dead? Lawsuit, Bankruptcy, Maintainers Leaving and More

#93

Post by ncmncm » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 8:02 AM UTC

arnd wrote: post #89

pm321 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The creator of ARM speaks well of RISC-V and considers ARM yesterday's old news and has moved on. Comparing MIPS to ARM in essentials of architecture is MIPS more beautiful? ARM I understand is a mess that has evolved for its niche.

I find the latest architecture versions are all remarkably similar as they have all adapted to the same environment: The old 32-bit Arm (now called Aarch32) was quite different and only somewhat RISC-like. Arm's Aarch64 however is mostly derived from MIPS64 with a lot of modernization plus some parts (exception levels) from 32-bit Arm. MIPSr6 was an attempt of modernizing MIPSr5 by removing all the ugly bits (delay s…

It's disappointing that RISC-V designers swallowed myths that resulted in unpleasant ISA details.

For example, the notion that condition codes interfere with OoO execution has been repudiated; Power and x86 both now rename condition registers. Lack of popcount and rotate in the base instruction set are glaring omissions. (That x86 got popcount late, and that the bitmanip extension will have them if it ever gets ratified, are no excuse.) It was silly to make the compare instruction generate a 1 instead of the overwhelmingly more useful ~0.

We only get a new ISA once in a generation. It is tragic when it is wrong.

It is possible, in principle, that popcount and rotate could be added to the base 16-bit instructions, but I'm not holding my breath.

Re: Is MIPS Dead? Lawsuit, Bankruptcy, Maintainers Leaving and More

#94

Post by ncmncm » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 8:09 AM UTC

Traster wrote: post #6

I remember listening to some guy from ImgTec brag about how MIPS is the 4th biggest instruction set in the world as if MIPS had like 20% market share rather 1% or whetever ridiculous market share ImgTec had bought their way into. That was literally at the peak when ImgTec were on top of the world, they'd just built a new campus and were spending like there was no tomorrow. Then Apple drank their milkshake, and they h…

There are probably more MIPS cores in currently powered-up equipment than all other 32-bit ISAs combined. Another billion will be manufactured in the next month or two.

There's dead and there's dead. MIPS is only dead in the way that internal combustion engines for transportation are dead.

Re: Is MIPS Dead? Lawsuit, Bankruptcy, Maintainers Leaving and More

#95

Post by apple4ever » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 7:46 PM UTC

lsllc wrote: post #36

vardump wrote: post #8

ARM and RISC-V have collectively removed any remaining niches (or future prospects) for MIPS.

Except that there aren't really any practical (affordable!) RISC-V based Linux boards/modules. The Onion Omega2S is based on a MediaTek MT7688 (MIPS32LE) and since the demise of the CHIP-Pro, is really the only inexpensive surface mount Linux SoM left. https://onion.io/store/omega2s/

The Omega2 is pretty nice, but they do need to improve the ecosystem.