
Loose Lips Sink MIPS - jakobdabo
https://www.eejournal.com/article/loose-lips-sink-mips/
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gumby
> “A license for all of mainland China has already been sold, lock, stock and
> barrel.” This is precisely what the U.S. government was trying to avoid when
> it intervened in the previous acquisition of MIPS Technologies.

Why does the U?S? Government care? The MIPS is a mature design that has
suffered from neglect for many years and while its useful I can’t imagine how
it could be any sort of strategic asset.

What am I missing?

~~~
bleepblorp
Arbitrary sanctions against Chinese companies (e.g. the war against Huawei)
and seizures of Chinese assets (e.g. TikTok) are driven by a sizable faction
in Washington DC that feels entitled to rule the planet uncontested. They
would like to unwind the past 75 years of Chinese economic development, and
push most of the Chinese population back into poverty, to make sure that an
independent global power can never develop.

~~~
xenadu02
Chinese state-sponsored actors and corporate espionage have also been stealing
technology from US companies so it's not like their hands are clean here.

Why is a Chinese citizen allowed to come to the US to buy property or start a
company - but if I want to do the same thing I am forced by Chinese law to
give half of it away to a Chinese "partner"?

China wants to have it both ways: concessions for 3rd world developing
economies yet to be treated as a world power with its own technology and
innovations. China wants the benefits of trade, yet manipulates the hell out
of its currency.

The current US administration is certainly hamfisted and inept, no argument
there. But even a broken clock is right twice a day. People are right to be
upset about some aspects of China's policies. That doesn't mean punishing
Chinese companies is a good solution, but the US is also under no obligation
to just sit here and let China do as it pleases while talking out of both
sides of its mouth.

~~~
gumby
The same activities, lack of copyright, harboring fugitives etc were how the
US got its start, to the consternation of the then dominant superpower. From
Lowell’s theft of the spinning mills to Dickens’ (and Tolkien‘s) complaints
about lack of copyright, the US didn’t care until it was on top.

Not to defend the British whose IP was being pilfered, they’d done the same in
their turn.

It was ever thus.

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jecel
The author found some nice references but seems to not have read them all. The
text says:

> It’s been a long, strange trip for MIPS. What started out as a university
> research project (under Dr. David Patterson, no less)

while [https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-
CHINA/TECH/yzdvxxdlnvx/USA-...](https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-
CHINA/TECH/yzdvxxdlnvx/USA-CHINA-TECH.jpg) has the more correct:

> MIPS was developed in 1981 by Stanford professor John Hennessy and his
> students

~~~
peapicker
I have a first edition Hennessy and Patterson textbook on the mips
architecture from my early 90s college days which I used to write a mips
emulator. They BOTH worked on it as original innovators, Hennessy for Mips in
specific, Patterson for being a main innovator of RISC architecture to begin
with. The pair won the 2017 Turing award for their respective contributions to
RISC.

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userbinator
The patents expired a long time ago, and MIPS has always occupied the ultra-
low-end in things like routers and phones. RISC-V may take its place in the
future, due to how similar it is.

~~~
harry8
MIPS has not "always occuppied the ultra-low-end." For example:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGI_Tezro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGI_Tezro)

~~~
tinus_hn
Occupying the low end doesn’t mean you can’t make products for the high end as
well.

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saagarjha
ARM was probably what sank MIPS; it seems like the move to China is just a
result of the company going under without any way to really make money.

~~~
baybal2
Moribund sales, and one decade under leadership of lawyers, and bankers sank
the company.

This all started at the time when ARM was ready to sell their cores on USB
sticks to noname Chinese companies.

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inportb
Cool story... but I'd like to learn more about the titular loose lips.

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quantaum_dot
The article didn't mention anything about the "loose lips" in the title.

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xbar
Thanks Apple.

