MIPS – against 20 MIPS for its current line – was being implemented in ECL for launch next year. Under the agreement with DEC, MIPS immediately gets well over $10m for a 5% stake in the company sold to DEC, and DEC gets a seat on the board and the right to grow its stake to 20%, at which point it would match that of agricultural machinery manufacturer Kubota Ltd of Japan, although the latter will be diluted somewhat if it does not invest pro rata to maintain its stake. DEC reportedly chose MIPS as its partner after convincing itself that the Sunnyvale firm had the best RISC technology. It is expected to come out with its first line of Ultrix workstations using the MIPS RISC at the turn of the year – but suggestions that this will mean curtains for the VMS VAXstations are wide of the mark: plenty of engineering software – including the Valid Logic Systems portfolio – runs only under VMS. Privately-held MIPS is expected to have sales of $38m this year, and although it has won several medium-sized names – Prime Computer Inc, Silicon Graphics Inc among them – for its RISCs, the DEC deal could be the breakthrough.
