MIPS Technologies Inc exhibited the first mobile phones featuring a processor with a MIPS (Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages) architecture in a hotel near the venue of the 2011 International CES.
This time, the company showcased two models. One is an Android-based smartphone, and the other is a low-priced mobile phone that is often called "feature phone." The operating system of the latter is eCos, an open-source real-time OS.
The two phones are scheduled to be released in the Chinese market in the near future, but the name of a maker that will sell the phones and the brand name under which they will be sold have not been disclosed yet.
The processor equipped in the smartphone was developed by Ingenic Semiconductor Co Ltd, a China-based chip maker. Its operating frequency is 400M to 600MHz.
Currently, the mobile phone market is practically dominated by ARM architectures. But MIPS Technologies said, "The number of registers in a MIPS architecture is 32, which is more than double that in an ARM architecture. So, MIPS architectures have higher processing efficiencies than ARM architectures."
In a demonstration, the company emphasized that the response speed of the smartphone operated at 400MHz is equivalent to that of a smartphone equipped with an ARM-based processor operated at 1GHz.
On the other hand, the processor of the feature phone was developed by Actions, a China-based firm. Its operating frequency is 300MHz.
