Sameer Wasson is passionate about RISC-V architecture and recently became CEO of MIPS to show the world how important an architecture it is.
He uses words like “freedom” when talking about how MIPS and RISC-V can change how developers view the coming demands on software, especially as cars become software defined and where over-the-air updates are a constant phenomenon that operators use to turn on new features applied to hardware.
The RISC-V universe with MIPS is working with foundries and OEMs to make the needed changes happen with multi-threading and low latency. “We’re saying to quit designing around Arm constraints. Have the freedom to innovate. Go innovate. Silicon people now have the tools,” Wasson said in an interview at CES 2024.
MIPS has been around since 1984, but Wasson arrived in September after an 18-year career at Texas Instruments. While at TI, he said he began to realize that RISC-V provided the ability to “give control back to engineers.”
To re-ignite MIPS for the coming tasks with AI, Wasson is hiring talent and raising the MIPS brand. “The AI revolution is happening and MIPS is there,” he said. In addition to automotive, MIPS is focused on accelerating compute density in data center and embedded markets.
The company of 60 engineers is surging to 100 and will be adding two locations in Dallas and Austin, Texas, to its San Jose, Calif.,and Bangalore, India, locations. A new logo features a stylized bird that “symbolizes and forward thinking….where speed and precise processing of data meet flexibility in an unprecedented union to achieve unrestricted progress and innovation,” according to the MIPS website.