MIPS Computer Systems Inc. was founded in 1984 by a group of researchers from
Stanford University including
John L. Hennessy and
Chris Rowen. These researchers had worked on a project called
MIPS (for
Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages), one of the projects that pioneered the RISC concept. Other principal founders were Skip Stritter, formerly a Motorola technologist, and John Moussouris, formerly of IBM. The initial CEO was Vaemond Crane, formerly President and CEO of
Computer Consoles Inc., who arrived in February 1985 and departed in June 1989. He was replaced by Bob Miller, a former senior
IBM and
Data General executive. Miller ran the company through its IPO and subsequent sale to Silicon Graphics. In 1986, MIPS Computer Systems designs were noticed by companies such as Cadnetix,
Prime Computer and
Silicon Graphics (SGI), these adopting the
R2000 for new products, with SGI adopting the MIPS architecture for its computers having noted that the Motorola 68000 series of processors was "at the end of its price-performance curve". Identifying the "time-to-market issues" of companies introducing workstation products, MIPS introduced a range of component kits, processor boards and memory boards, intended as "building blocks" for such companies to build into systems. Additionally, development systems such as the M/500 were sold, intended to support software development at systems vendors building MIPS-based hardware products. In December 1989, MIPS held its first
IPO. That year,
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) released a
Unix workstation based on the MIPS design. After developing the R2000 and
R3000 microprocessors, a management change brought along the larger dreams of being a computer vendor. The company found itself unable to compete in the computer market against much larger companies and was struggling to support the costs of developing both the chips and the systems (
MIPS Magnum). To secure the supply of future generations of MIPS microprocessors (the 64-bit
R4000), SGI acquired the company in 1992 for $333 million and renamed it as MIPS Technologies Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of SGI. in 1996 and a follow-up the
R12000 in 1997. During this time, two future microprocessors code-named
The Beast and
Capitan were in development; these were cancelled after SGI decided to migrate to the
Itanium architecture in 1998. As a result, MIPS was spun out as an intellectual property licensing company, offering licences to the MIPS architecture as well as microprocessor core designs. On June 30, 1998, MIPS held an IPO after raising about with an offering price of a share. In 1999, SGI announced it would overhaul its operations; it planned to continue introducing new MIPS processors until 2002, but its server business would include Intel's processor architectures as well. SGI spun MIPS out completely on June 20, 2000, by distributing all its interest as stock dividend to the stockholders. In early 2008 MIPS laid off 28 employees from its processor business group. On August 13, 2008, MIPS announced a loss of $108.5 million for its fiscal fourth-quarter and that it would lay off another 15% of its workforce. At the time MIPS had 512 employees. In May 2018, according to the company's presence on LinkedIn, there may be less than 50 employees.
Notable Contributors Notable people who have worked at MIPS include
James Billmaier,
Steve Blank, Joseph DiNucci,
John L. Hennessy,
Todd Bezenek,
David Hitz, Earl Killian, Dan Levin,
John Mashey, John P. McCaskey, Bob Miller,
Stratton Sclavos, and
Skip Stritter. In 2010, Sandeep Vij was named CEO of MIPS Technologies. Vij studied under John Hennessy as a Stanford University graduate student.
EE Times reported that MIPS had 150 employees as of November 1, 2010. If the August 14, 2008 EDN article MIPS has engineering facilities in
Shanghai,
China,
Beaverton, Oregon,
Bristol and
Kings Langley, both in
England. It also has offices in Hsin-chu,
Taiwan;
Tokyo, Japan; Remscheid,
Germany and
Haifa, Israel. During the first quarter of 2013, 498 out of 580 of MIPS patents were sold to Bridge Crossing which was created by
Allied Security Trust, with all processor-specific patents and the other parts of the company sold to
Imagination Technologies. Imagination had outbid
Ceva Inc to buy MIPS with an offer of $100 million, and was investing to develop the architecture for the embedded processor market. In 2017, under financial pressure itself, Imagination Technologies sold the MIPS processor business to a California-based investment company, Tallwood Venture Capital. Despite the regulatory obstacles that had forced Imagination to divest itself of the MIPS business prior to its own acquisition by Canyon Bridge, bankruptcy proceedings for Wave Computing indicated that the company had in 2018 and 2019 transferred full licensing rights for the MIPS architecture for China, Hong Kong and Macau to CIP United, a Shanghai-based company. In 2021, MIPS announced it would begin making chips based on the
RISC-V architecture. In 2022, the company announced availability of its first RISC-V CPU IP core, the eVocore P8700.
Company timeline ==Products==