Toshiba, Siemens to develop offer versions of MIPS MPU

Electronic News, Nov 25, 1991

TOKYO -- Toshiba Corp. and Siemens AG have agreed to jointly develop and second-source versions of the R3000/R4000 MIPS microprocessors and related peripherals.

The agreement follows by about a month a licensing pact between Toshiba and MIPS Computer Systems Inc. under which the Japanese firm obtained the rights to design, develop, manufacture and market the 32-bit R3000, 64-bit R4000 and future iterations of the MIPS RISC processor.

The Toshiba-Siemens agreement calls for "possible cooperation" in three areas: joint definition and development of the R3000/R4000 series of processors, mutual supply of these products, and mutual foundry activity. The latter provision "means that each partner may produce RISC wafers at the request of the other," the companies said in a prepared statement.

Additionally, each firm will work as an OEM source for the other to add "ready-for-sale products" to their respective lineups.

Toshiba and Siemens have already been cooperating in the field of application specific ICs.

In signing on as a MIPS licensee last month, Toshiba said it expected to bring its own commercial versions of the R3000/R4000 to market by early spring of next year. The company said it also planned to offer chip-sets integrating peripheral components around the core of the R3000/R4000.

Hideharu Egawa, senior vice president and group executive of Toshiba's Semiconductor group, said in a prepared statement at the time that "The agreement with MIPS will allow us to become a comprehensive supplier of both complex instruction set computer (CISC) and RISC microprocessors, and strongly reinforce and expand our lineup."

Toshiba estimates that the share of RISC devices in the total 32-bit MPU market, which is currently about 11 percent, will climb to 30 percent by 1995.

The Toshiba-Siemens pact comes amid expectations that a bruising price battle among the various MIPS licensees is probably in the offing.

At a press conference early last month to publicize the start of sample shipments of the R4000, several of the licensees predicted that margins could quickly succumb to the pressures of a weak computer market (EN, Oct. 7). "The price war begins this afternoon," noted Richard Rasmussen, general manager of LSI Logic's MIPS division. "If Compaq throws open a bid for 5,000 units, the order from my boss is 'Don't lose that order.'"

Initially, at least three versions of the 64-bit processor will be available. The R4000PC, which supports primary on-chip cache, is in a 179-pin PGA package and is aimed at low-cost desktop, low-end server and embedded control markets. The R4000SAC, with secondary cache for uniprocessing applications, is offered in 447-pin PGA or LGA packages, aimed at high-performance desk-tops and servers.

Finally, the R4000MC, with multiprocessing features and secondary cache, is available in a 447-pin PGA or LGA package.