<company> A company which designs, develops, and licenses reduced instruction set computer (RISC) microprocessors and compilers. MIPS Technologies, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Silicon Graphics, Inc. and operates as an independent unit. MIPS is the successor to the processor business of MIPS Computer Systems which was founded in 1984 and merged with Silicon Graphics on 29 June 1992. MIPS Technologies developed the world's first RISC VLSI microprocessors (1985) (or was it the ARM?), the first commercial 64-bit microprocessor (MIPS R4000, 1992), announced MIPS R4300i - the first 64-bit RISC processor designed for interactive consumer applications (April 1995). They announced the MIPS R10000 - the next generation general-purpose MIPS microprocessor and the most powerful processor in the world (October 1994). MIPS' semiconductor company partners participate in the design and development of MIPS processors and software and then produce, market, and support the processors. MIPS itself does not fabricate or sell products. MIPS' semiconductor partners are: Integrated Device Technology, LSI Logic Corporation, NEC Corporation, NKK Corporation, {Philips Semiconductors}, Siemens AG, and Toshiba Corporation. MIPS' products include: R4000 - 100 MHz; 1.35M transistors, primary i/d cache 8KB/8KB, SPECint92 58.3/ SPECfp92 61.4. R4300i - 133 MHZ, 1.35M transistors; primary i/d cache, 16KB/8KB, SPECint92 80, SPECfp92 60. R4400 - 250 MHz, 2.3M transistors, primary i/d cache 16KB/16KB, SPECint92 175.8, SPECfp92 164.4. R4600 - 133 MHz, 1.9M transistors, primary i/d cache 16KB/16KB, SPECint92 85, SPECfp92 75. R8000/R8010 - 90 MHz, 2.6M, .83M transistors, primary i/d cache, 16KB/16KB, SPECint92 132, SPECfp92 396. R10000 - 200 MHz, 6.7M transistors, primary i/d cache 32KB/32KB, SPECint92 >300, SPECfp92 >600. MIPS' processor chips were used in the DEC 3100 series of workstations. http://mips.com/. Usenet newsgroup: news:comp.sys.mips. (1996-03-01)

Million Instructions Per Second (Reference: CPU)

1. <unit, benchmark> Million instructions per second. The unit commonly used to give the rate at which a processor executes instructions. Often rendered by hackers as "Meaningless Indication of Processor Speed" or in other unflattering ways. This expresses a nearly universal attitude about the value of most benchmark claims, said attitude being one of the great cultural divides between hackers and marketroids. The etymologically incorrect singular "1 MIP" is sometimes heard. See also KIPS and GIPS. 2. VAX MIPS. 3. <processor> {Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages}. 4. <company> MIPS Technologies, Inc. [Jargon File] (1996-03-01)