Imagination Technologies is making a MIPS CPU design called MIPSfpga available for academic use:
Is it open source? Not completely. For academic users the license is simple: you can use it as you wish, but you cannot put it into silicon. If you modify it, you must talk to us first if you wish to patent the changes. In summary, universities can go as deep as they like under the hood.
Now that the MIPSfpga initiative is public, let me tell you what is available and what is coming:
- The getting started package includes the MIPS microAptiv CPU and all the other elements you need to get started. This includes a detailed guide that enables you to check the CPU is running on the FPGA and that you can program and debug it. The guide gives examples for the Terasic DE2-115 (Altera FPGA) platform and the Digilent Nexys4 DDR (Xilinx FPGA) platforms, although we are sure users will port it to many other platforms.
- Soon after the launch package, we will offer MIPSfpga Fundamentals – a complete set of teaching materials using the CPU.
- Then later MIPSfpga Advanced teaching materials will take things to a deeper level.
The Register reports that "While ARM and Intel dominate the chip market, the MIPS third option is still a significant player in the industry... Former rival and co-founder and CTO of ARC, Rick Clucas, told El Reg: 'It will potentially give MIPS something to beat ARM with'." AnandTech also has coverage of the announcement as well as some context for the move. Imagination has released new PowerVR GPUs and development boards in recent months in order to compete with ARM SoCs. The company imagines its GPUs being used in "entry-level mobile devices, embedded computers, and high-end wearables."
(Score: 4, Interesting) by kaszz on Tuesday April 28 2015, @11:26AM
So this is a MIPS CPU expressed as hardware description language (HDL) that can then be implemented in a FPGA of your choice (or not?). This makes it possible to implement and modify the CPU to some extent and to future proof it.
(better summary please)
But as others has pointed out there's already free designs. And the proprietary path will always bite you. Be it incompatibilities, hidden details that are thus un-debuggable, or license lawyer shitland. So thanks for the offer, but I'll prefer the free options any day. Unless you have a slight miracle to sell.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday April 28 2015, @05:06PM
It's an educational tool, and not much else. When I was getting my comp sci degree we had to take a class where first we learned to code in MIPS assembly, then we learned VHDL and implemented a basic MIPS CPU. I'm sure this is significantly more advanced than what we built (I think even supporting multiplication or division was extra credit) but it still seems more like an educational reference example than something you're going to put in your next Linux rig :)
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday April 28 2015, @05:45PM
The common design case is to control something more complex. The CPU is usually the side story.