02-06-2003, 01:45 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Microsoft, MIPS Form Alliance for Digital Media Devices
If you thought MIPS on CE was dead, you were wrong -- it's only dead on the Pocket PC platform. In fact, this announcement was the kickoff to the "MIPS and Microsoft Executive Summit". I wonder what devices we'll actually see hitting the market.
"A number of chip manufacturers will be part of an alliance announced Wednesday by Microsoft Corp. and MIPS Technologies Inc. to design digital media devices based on Windows CE .Net and the MIPS processor core, the companies said.
The companies are looking at designs for digital televisions, digital set-top boxes and other consumer entertainment devices featuring the operating system/processor core combination, said Kevin Meyer, vice president of marketing for MIPS, based in Mountain View, California."
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02-06-2003, 02:40 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,734
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As an avid slashdot reader ( or is that /.  ) let me put my paranoid hat on... (the one with the tin foil)
The aim is obviously to use CE for digital entertainment devices, which will always be a target for hackers to free their entertainment from built-in DRM. By using a OS compiled for a seperate processor MS makes it much more difficult to interface with the hardware etc by most hackers.
I contend that the only reason MS is causing this split in the market is exactly for this puspose, to frustrate people who might want to hack the stuff, and also to make it more difficult to transfer the software to another device (e.g. why cant I run that entertainment software on my pocketpc... oohh.. its compiled for MIPS only, ok then....)
Any takers?
Surur
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02-06-2003, 04:12 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 22
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The only people who thought that MIPS on CE was dead are those people who (still) think that PocketPCs are the only devices that use CE. CE is a far more robust and ported product than PPC, which is just the ARM version of a particular rev. of CE, tarted up with the PPC interface, plus some apps. The CE developers kit that Microsoft provides still targets MIPS and all the rest, and OEMs are free to choose which CPU/architecture they prefer.
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02-06-2003, 04:29 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 300
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by jefito
The only people who thought that MIPS on CE was dead are those people who (still) think that PocketPCs are the only devices that use CE. CE is a far more robust and ported product than PPC, which is just the ARM version of a particular rev. of CE, tarted up with the PPC interface, plus some apps. The CE developers kit that Microsoft provides still targets MIPS and all the rest, and OEMs are free to choose which CPU/architecture they prefer.
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Ditto - what he said. I've known all along that Windows CE was alive and well on MIPS, in fact, I've seen pics of Windows CE.NET devices running MIPS (prototypes). I've also read that Windows CE.NET would be running on AMD's Alchemy, which may (?) be related to MIPS, but haven't heard anything out of it lately.
And hey, what's up with the downward slide of the X-box? Is this the first time Microsoft went up against a worthy opponent (Sony) and didn't crush them? (oh wait - that would be AOL with the dial-up ISP business, but anywaze :wink: )
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02-06-2003, 06:13 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 157
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Mips is great and all. But I was actually kinda happy when Microsoft regulated and require all the Pocket PC to use the same processor. Those days were crazy when you had to figure out what kind of processor you had in you Palm Sized PC to qualify for a certain software. The average consumer who buy electrincs don't really want to know the technical specification of the device, they just wanted to know if it works. I really thought standerization was the key componet to why Pocket PC sales started to picked up.
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02-06-2003, 06:57 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by jefito
The only people who thought that MIPS on CE was dead are those people who (still) think that PocketPCs are the only devices that use CE.
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Of course. I was just trying to introduce the post. It's interesting, nevertheless, that MS is introducing a new line of devices with MIPS chips. Why MIPS and not ARM, for example?
--janak
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02-06-2003, 07:05 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,734
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Janak Parekh
Quote:
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Originally Posted by jefito
The only people who thought that MIPS on CE was dead are those people who (still) think that PocketPCs are the only devices that use CE.
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Of course. I was just trying to introduce the post. It's interesting, nevertheless, that MS is introducing a new line of devices with MIPS chips. Why MIPS and not ARM, for example?
--janak |
Read above
It is strange, as there must be developing huge economies of scale now with ARM (hasnt more than 20 million pocketpc's been sold, arms chips are used everywhere, developers (and users) would like one distribution for all their platforms etc.)
The only reason I can think of is that MS wants to split the market on purpose.
Anyways.. my theory
Surur
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02-06-2003, 07:09 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Surur
Read above |
Ah, sorry, missed the real point of your post. If MS had never used MIPS before, then I'd buy that. But MIPS+CE-based handheld devices are not a new thing...
--janak
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02-06-2003, 09:33 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 22
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Quote:
Janak Parekh:
Of course. I was just trying to introduce the post. It's interesting, nevertheless, that MS is introducing a new line of devices with MIPS chips. Why MIPS and not ARM, for example?
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Where does it say that MS is introducing any devices? All the article says is that MS will be working with MIPS as part of an alliance to produce the guts of devices that will be built by some other parties.
From the article: "As part of the alliance, Microsoft will work to optimize Windows CE .Net for the MIPS processor core, said Scott Horn, director of marketing for the embedded and appliance platforms group at Microsoft."
Sounds rather more like they are just improving their support for the MIPS CPU.
Incidentally, another quote: "Windows CE .Net runs on handheld and embedded devices, and is also licensed to other companies to use portions of the source code as required for their devices. Microsoft licensed Windows CE .Net internally in order to create its Pocket PC operating system for handheld devices."
Since when is PPC based on CE.Net? Perhaps the next version, but that's not been announced yet, that I've heard. Bit of a howler, I think.
Quote:
Surur:
The only reason I can think of is that MS wants to split the market on purpose.
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What market are you talking about? From the article:
""We continue to work with Arm and other partners, this is just a deepening of a 10-year relationship with MIPS. Different architectures are used in different spaces, and we're focused here on digital entertainment devices," Horn said."
It's a fact that ARM devices are not used in every device, and evidently MIPs still has some life in it. See this page from MIPS Technologies site:
http://www.mips.com/coolApps/index.html
BTW, here's the press release from Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/p...PSSummitPR.asp[/url]
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02-06-2003, 09:52 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by jefito
Where does it say that MS is introducing any devices? All the article says is that MS will be working with MIPS as part of an alliance to produce the guts of devices that will be built by some other parties.
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Sorry for the misstatement. I meant to say just that, but nevertheless I was just trying to guess at the motivations. My guess is that they're trying to court everyone with the desire to spread adoption of CE .Net.
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Since when is PPC based on CE.Net? Perhaps the next version, but that's not been announced yet, that I've heard. Bit of a howler, I think.
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Obviously, PPC isn't. However, a number of ARM devices have come out that are built on top of CE .Net...
--janak
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