On the back of a new study by Semico research Corp, Silicon Graphics Inc is claiming its MIPS processor was the leading RISC architecture by volume shipped last year. Semico says 19.2m MIPS RISCs shipped in calendar 1996, placed largely in consumer and embedded products, including Nintendo 64, Sony PlayStation, Philips/Sony WebTV, EchoStar Dish network satellite receiver and Philips Velo and NEC MobilePro Windows CE handhelds. MIPS-based system vendors include Tandem and Siemens Nixdorf. 5.5 million MIPS RISCs shipped in 1995, 1.7 million in 1994 and 1million in 1993. Semico numbers show something like 18.5m Super Hitachi SH- 7xxx shipped in the same period, 5.5m PowerPCs, 4m i960s, 3.5m ARMs, 1m Sparcs, 0.3m Alphas and 0.3m PA-RISCs.
