Reduced instruction set microprocessor designer and board and systems builder MIPS Computer Systems Inc, Sunnyvale, California, has landed $22.6m in new funding from Kubota Ltd of Japan. Kubota is a leading manufacturer of agricultural and construction machinery, as well as iron pipes and building materials, and wants to diversify into high technology. Part of the cash will go towards the development by MIPS of a high-speed next generation computer. The investment gives Kubota 20% of MIPS, which also gets manufactur-ing rights to the existing MIPS line, with Japanese production to start next year, and also gives it ex-clusive Far East and South-East Asian marketing rights to the machine to be developed under the pact. Sumitomo Corp and Toshiba Corp already market machines based on existing MIPS processors (CI Nos 767, 772). In September, MIPS announced that it was looking for a buyer for the chip-level side of its business – and also said then that an unidentified Japanese company had approached it to make an investment (CI No 777).