AMD Wants to Buy MIPS, but can they Beat Google?

[_K_]

According to our sources, it looks like AMD is not done with acquisitions, and their second potential acquisition might be the second most important one they did in 20 years. While it is too early to tell were our sources misleading us (thus, take this piece with a fair grain of sea salt), the story was told to us with compeling arguments.

Ever since AMD came into microprocessor scene as the second source for IBM, the company was tied to Intel's X86 architecture. According to sources, AMD is one of bidders for MIPS Technology, a company that's been producing its own CPU architectures (both 32- and 64-bit) for over three decades now. Last Thursday, Bloomberg revealed that "MIPS hired Goldman Sachs to pursue a potential sale." We view this as a strategic leak for the final stage of acquisition negotiations, not the initial one.


As a consequence, MIPS stock continued its stronge surge and it looks like the acquisition strategy might pay off. After all, if Facebook bought Instagram, a 13 people company without strong IP, how much value holds a sub-150 people company with over 500 patents and employing some of brightest minds in the industry? Remember,
MIPS has a chip that runs Android 4.0 ICS and consumes LESS power than competing ARM parts
. Furthermore, that chip is built in old 65nm process versus power saving 40nm and 28nm competitors.


On
Financial Analyst Day 2012
, AMD CEO Rory Read and newly appointed Senior VP Lisa Su disclosed that the company is
contemplating opening to
"3rd party IP" causing numerous media running stories that AMD will/should announce ARM as their second architecture license. However, if you are able to pull it off, why license another 3rd party architecture if you can relatively affordably buy your own?


Echos of NexGen
Back in 1995, AMD acquired NexGen Inc. for $865 million in stock and completely turned the company around. Jerry Sanders, founder and then CEO of AMD got invaluable engineers in the form of Dirk Meyer, Fred Weber and Ravikrishna Cherukuri (Ravi Krisha). NexGen created a processor that competed against the first Pentium and outperformed AMD's own part by quite a margin. That processor became K6, K6-II and K6-III - buying time for Ravi Krishna to build the K7 chipset and Dirk Meyer to build the K7 (original Athlon). Fred Webber worked on K8, the first 64-bit x86 processor. If you follow the industry, you recall that K7 and K8 demolished Intel in IPC (Instructions-per-Clock) and placed AMD firmly in consumer and enterprise space.


Out of those three names mentioned, two are sitting in MIPS Board of Directors and play an active or semi-active role in the company. Mr. Ravi Krisha is Vice President of Engineering, while Fred Weber is a board member. Other two board members are investors, i.e. venture capitalists.


MIPS: An Amazing Turnover
In the past 18 months, we have seen an amazing turnover by MIPS. The company had 500 employees in 2008, dropped to just 150 in
2010 and then appointed Sandeep Vij as the CEO
. From the company that was obviously flaming out, a strategic turnover was powered by decision to go for mobile industry using Google Android operating system.


The company expanded the list of licensees and brought in support for wireless partners for 3G/4G network standards, started to work very closely with prospective clients and they get the title to power the
world's first $99 Android 4.0 tablet
, which we reviewed recently. The company is now executing the goals which were "new licenses for a range of target applications including mobile internet devices, e-books [tablets], DTVs, set-top boxes, home networking, automotive, and digital still cameras, as well as the mobile handset license."


Investors followed suit and in the past 12 months, the stock gained 48%, raising the market cap to $350 million. Given that AMD recently spent cash on acquiring a micro-server maker and lost a lot of engineering talent, acquiring a semiconductor engineering company seems like a logical move.


One of biggest problem to this hypothetical buy highly possible acquisition is the fact that according to very reliable sources, AMD is currently effectively run by its CFO, Mr. Thomas Seifert. While Mr. Seifert created a small miracle by creating a framework which resulted in returning over four billion dollars of debt since 2009 (propeling the stock from $2 to today's $7.8) - the company lost a lot of engineering talent. One of very highly ranked executives once told us that "Mr. Seifert would not recognize a golden goose if he tripped on one." While this might be a bitter pill from a disappointed veteran, the fact of the matter is that AMD lost billions of dollars in revenue on netbooks, and a lot of revenue was lost by not investing as much in graphics business - today, NVIDIA has smaller GPU market share than AMD and much higher profitability.


That same money means nothing to true visionaries, since Intel burned through several billion dollars and failed to create a discrete GPU. AMD recently lost a lot of key engineers and executives that currently run technology departments in Apple, Samsung Semiconductor, Intel, Qualcomm and the list goes on.


Thus, acquiring MIPS could be a Hail Mary pass to get a set of brilliant people and not overburden the cash flow.
Alternative for MIPS is quite obvious - should AMD fail to acquire the company, i.e. get outbid by other parties, the logical choice would be Google, NVIDIA or Qualcomm.


Bear in mind one thing - according to our sources, creating a 64-bit ARM architecture is not going smooth. 64-bit MIPS exists since 1991 and it powered computers from Silicon Graphics, Fujitsu, Intergraph and others.


The stage is set, we are now waiting for the players. Who will marry who?

Não estava à espera desta notícia depois de saber que contrataram o Goldman Sachs para analisar potenciais compradores do MIPS.
Fonte

 

[manipulo]

Optimo nada melhor que letras pretas para fundo preto, só li as verdes...

 

[_K_]

Eu leio na perfeição -.-

 

[muddymind]

Eu leio na perfeição -.-

Eu há pouco só seleccionando o texto... e a fonte?

 

[Gaugamela]

Notícia interessante. Fazia muito sentido esta aquisição para a AMD ainda para mais porque continua a perder muitos cérebros.

 

[062413]

falta saber se ha dinheiro para isso..

 

[Dark Kaeser]

E esta, hein?

British microprocessing firm Imagination Technologies is to buy the operating business of MIPS Technologies for $60 million in a bid to step up its challenge to an increasingly dominant ARM Holdings.


It will also get a licence for a further 498 patents being sold by California-based MIPS for $350 million to a consortium of technology companies organised by patent holding company Allied Security Trust and led by ARM.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/06/imaginationtechnologies-idUSL5E8M62HQ20121106

Imagination said Tuesday (Nov. 6) it has agreed to buy MIPS' operating business for $60 million. Under terms of the deal, the U.K. graphics IP vendor will gain 160 engineers and 82 MIPS patents. The move is viewed as a way for Imagination to beef up its CPU core expertise while defending its graphics lead. It would also position Imagination to competing against ARM, which has been pursuing its integrated CPU-GPU solution strategy.

Separately, ARM said it will lead a consortium buying the rights to the MIPS portfolio of 580 patents. The consortium, called Bridge Crossing LLC, will pay $450 million in cash to purchase the rights to the portfolio, of which ARM will contribute $167.5 million.

http://eetimes.com/electronics-news/4400672/ARM-and-Imagination-divvy-up-MIPS

 

[Xmeagol]

existe mais concorrencia neste segmento do que intel vs amd

 

[Horus-Anhur]

É um mercado novo. Quando o X86 começou também tinha vários concorrentes para além da AMD e da Intel, como a Cyrix e a Via.

Eventualmente o mercado ARM vai se limitar a 2 ou 3 concorrentes de peso.

 

[Mk Pt]

Maior concentração vai ser natural com o amadurecer do mercado para os ARM, mas julgo que devido a questões de licenciamento nunca vai ser tão concetrado como o x86.
A não ser que alguém compre a ARM e comece tendência de concentração e restrições de licenciamentos, mas aí depois é competência das Autoridades da concorrência evitarem o cenário do que se passa no x86.



E Winjer, a VIA ainda é concorrente no x86..

 

[Horus-Anhur]

Sim, mas com uma quota de mercado tão pequena que mal se consegue desenhar nas pie charts do X86.

 

[MoDu]

Esperemos que nunca chegue ao estado atual do mercado x86, que está praticamente sem concorrência. Mas está sem dúvida a arrancar melhor, com mais players e menos impedimentos de patentes.

 

[Horus-Anhur]

Neste momento a ARM quer é ter muita gente a bordo da sua arquitetura, por isso não coloca entraves a quem a quer usar, bem pelo contrário, facilita.
No entanto, se o ARM ultrapassar o X86, não sei se irá continuar a dar estas benesses.

 

[Mk Pt]

A ARM 'disponibiliza' licenças 'perpétuas'.
Imagino que uma Samsung, TI, Apple, Nintendo, Nvidia, Qualcoom, Marvel, IBM, Microsoft, Intel [e mais algumas] não tenham licenciamento 'temporário'.
E ainda deve haver os chineses, cujos 2 ou 3 principais também devem conseguir licenciamento perpétuo.

Poderá restringir o futuro licenciamento, mas já há uma variedade bem maior com licenças 'perpétuas' do que nunca houve com x86.

 

[Dark Kaeser]

Vocês não estarão a fazer confusão?

É que a MIPS Technologies e a sua arquitectura/cores MIPS são concorrentes da ARM, e o seu modelo de negócio é semelhante, baseiam-se no licenciamento das instruções/cores/arquitectura, é assim que eles fazem dinheiro.

Os termos do negócio dizem que as patentes directamente relacionadas com a arquitectura MIPS (as tais 82), a equipa de desenvolvimento e o licenciamento da arquitectura passam para a Imagination, a ARM apenas aparece no negócio, integrada num consórcio, para adquirir as restantes patentes na posse da MIPS Tech. (as tais 498), porque estas são transversais a outras arquitecturas e apenas para evitar que possam cair nas "mãos erradas".

Gardner said “the MIPS patents could have been used to extract license fees from most of the companies building CPUs.”

MIPS, a pioneer of 32- and 64-bit CPU architectures, “invented many of the key microprocessor concepts,” said Gardner. These were considered so essential that ARM led the group that was one of the keys to the acquisition, the Allied Security Trust, a consortium of companies with a history of buying up patents.

O próprio CEO da ARM o afirmou

"ARM is a leading participant in this consortium, which presents an opportunity for companies to neutralize any potential infringement risk from these patents in the further development of advanced embedded technology," ARM CEO Warren East said in a statement. "Litigation is expensive and time consuming and, in this case, a collective approach with other major industry players was the best way to remove that risk."

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4400672/ARM-and-Imagination-divvy-up-MIPS?pageNumber=1

não deixa de ser curioso que enquanto a ARM ainda está a tentar lançar uma arquitectura/instruções a 64 bit, a MIPS já tenha uma há algum tempo, mas enquanto a ARM deu o salto para a ribalta com os smarphones/tablets, a MIPS não o consegui fazer continuando a estar presente sobretudo no "home entertainment" e equipamentos de rede, onde o seu menor consumo é valorizado, e isto apesar dos cores MIPS terem suporte Android.

Existe pelo menos um tablet com core MIPS, não sei se haverá mais, mas estará disponível apenas na China e Índia
http://www.androidcentral.com/mips-announces-125-jelly-bean-tablet

A Imagination é mais conhecida pelo seu IP gráfico, os PowerVR, usados por exemplo nos actuais Intel Atom e alguns SoC da Apple, mas isso deve mudar muito em breve, até porque as licenças da MIPS são mais em conta.

First is the Android factor. MIPS is one of the only three CPU architectures directly supported by the Android OS. The other two are ARM and Intel. He expects the deal to settle the current uncertainty surrounding MIPS, giving Imagination a chance to pitch MIPS to the industry as a legitimate CPU choice – “a real alternative to ARM and Intel” – especially in the Android world

econd is the China factor. Imagination will inherit MIPS licensees, including the China-based fabless company Ingenic. Gardner explained, “Ingenic’s CEO learned to design MIPS-based processors at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which has spawned several MIPS designs, including the Loongson processor based on MIPS64.” He added, “Imagination may be able to use its MIPS acquisition to gain traction for its GPUs in the companies that favor the MIPS architecture.”

Third is MIPS’ current product portfolio. Gardner said Imagination, in continuing to develop MIPS cores, will “start in a good position with the three-pronged Aptiv family of cores, including the high-performance ProAptiv line.” He noted that ARM’s recently announced Cortex-A57 “will achieve 3.9 CoreMark/MHz, which is below the MIPS ProAptiv score of 4.5 CoreMark/MHz.” Gardner added, “The MIPS cores should also consume less die area and power than the high-end ARM CPUs.”

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-...ill-MIPS--it-s-ready-for-CPU-war?pageNumber=1

Agora é esperar para ver quanto tempo passa até sair um CPU MIPS e GPU PowerVR para smartphones e tablets.

 

[Dark Kaeser]

Depois da oferta inicial da Imagination houve uma contra proposta da Ceva, e perante a última oferta da Imagination de $100 milhões a Ceva diz que não apresentará mais nenhuma oferta pela MIPS.

Ceva, a licensor of silicon intellectual property (IP) platform solutions and DSP cores, has announced that it would not submit any further proposal to acquire the operating business of MIPS Technologies, As a result, Imagination Technologies will most likely obtain MIPS business for $100 million.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/di...s_from_MIPS_Bidding_War_with_Imagination.html

Ceva bid twice against forcing Imagination to rebid up to a level of $100 million. Ceva said that while there had been merit in trying to acquire MIPS, at the level reached it would rather preserve its cash for other opportunities.

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4403771/Imagination-wins-MIPS-bid

 

[Dark Kaeser]

A aquisição da MIPS pela Imagination foi aceite pelos accionistas da MIPS.

At the MIPS Stockholder Meeting held on 6 February 2013, MIPS stockholders voted by the requisite majority on all proposals to enable the acquisition to complete.

In addition to the operating business of MIPS, Imagination’s purchase includes ownership of 82 key patent properties that are directly relevant to the MIPS architecture, and comprehensive license rights to all of the remaining 498 MIPS’ patent properties.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/di...magination_Completes_Acquisition_of_MIPS.html

 

[Dark Kaeser]

Wave Computing said it has emerged from Chapter 11 and will continue business going forward as MIPS.

As a result of the Chapter 11 restructuring plan approved by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California on 10 February 2021, in which a majority of creditors will receive a meaningful recovery, Wave Computing, Inc. and its subsidiaries including MIPS Tech, will be known as MIPS. The company’s statement said this reflects its strategic focus on the RISC-based processor architectures which were originally developed by MIPS. It added that MIPS is also developing a new “standards-based 8th generation architecture,” which will be based on the open source RISC-V processor standard. The company provided no further details.

https://www.eetimes.com/wave-goodbye-hello-mips-as-chapter-11-resolved/