MIPS-based Android phone expected in 2011

At a hotel suite during Computex 2010, MIPS Technologies updated several developments about its Android-supporting processor architecture.

MIPS said it expects to see the first 4G Android handset on its CPU architecture hit the market by 2011. MIPS did not elaborate on details of the device, but said it looks to expand into the segment that has been dominated by ARM.

The IP licensing firm also revealed that a new customer in APAC is now developing a MIPS-based mobile processor for 3G/4G base stations.

MIPS and SySDSoft have developed an LTE protocol stack ported to the Android platform, according to MIPS. Benchmark results of the SySDSoft LTE protocol stack running on MIPS-Based Android and Linux platforms achieve nearly theoretical maximum CAT4 data throughput with small packet sizes, low CPU operating frequency and low power. With higher upload/download throughput and similar or better performance compared to the competitive solution running at 500MHz, these are believed to be the highest-performance results for such small packet sizes running on a 350MHz core, MIPS claimed.

MIPS also announced symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) support for the Android platform running on MIPS-based multicore SoCs. Now MIPS licensees using MIPS32 multi-threaded and multiprocessor cores can bring rich web and multimedia content to smartphones with the Android platform, the company said.

In addition, MIPS said ViXS Systems and Silicon Integrated System (SiS) have joined a growing list of companies leveraging Android on the MIPS architecture to create next-generation connected entertainment devices. SiS has licensed IP from MIPS for SoCs targeting mobile Internet device (MID) applications, while ViXS is demonstrating at the ongoing Computex 2010 the Android platform running on its MIPS-based XCode 4200 family of integrated chipsets for digital home products including Blu-ray disc players, IPTV/cable/satellite set-top boxes (STBs) and other consumer entertainment devices.

MIPS in August 2009 published the source code of its port of Android for the MIPS architecture, in a move to define standardized Android-based platforms for consumer devices such as STBs, digital TVs, MIDs, home media players and VoIP systems. ALi and Sigma Designs are among MIPS's ecosystem partners.