MIPS "open sources" CPU

Imagination Technologies who make graphics chips and bought the chip designs of MIPS have made the underlying MIPS processor design available to academic institutions for free.

The CPU has all the features (MMU, cache controllers, debug interfaces, etc.) that a modern operating system needs to run (such as Linux and Android). The actual RTL is included in the release.

This will allow the running of the CPU on an FPGA (field programmable gate array) and Imagination Technology hope that it will lead new new innovations in the Internet of Things, mobile and automative arenas.

This is the first time a complete commercial CPU has been released and is pretty innovative of Imagination. There is a site Opencores and someone did post an ARM compatible CPU, but it was pulled at the request of ARM.

MediaTek wants the smartphone market

MediaTek has released a new chip the MT6577 which combines an ARM Cortex-A9 dual CPU with their 3G/HSPA modem and a graphics subsystem based on Imagination Technologies' PowerVR Series5 SGX. This will allow 1080p encoding and playback at 15 or 30 frames per second (using a 1080 by 720 display) and supports an 8MP camera and can support a stereo camera too. The 40nm process silicon is being produced by TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited) and MediaTek are already in talks with vendors and devices should be available by Q3 this year. MediaTek are already the largest supply of baseband units, but it's a high volume low margin business. This should add value, however this will enable smart phones to be produced in the $150 - $200 range while existing smart phones with similar specifications cost around the $500 mark. This puts MediaTek directly against Qualcomm and their Snapdragon cores.