Sunnyvale, California-based MIPS Computer Systems Inc is desperate to be seen to be non-aligned once it is part of Silicon Graphics Inc, and to that end, it has rallied 12 of the computer industry Great and the Good to help guide the future directions of the MIPS microprocessor architecture and help assure that it remains competitive and open: the Executive Advisory Board will become part of MIPS Technologies Inc, the wholly owned subsidiary to be created once the acquisition is completed; the board will propose and review enhancements to the R-series architecture and evaluate microprocessor development programmes to help assure continued technical competitiveness; the 12 worthies are Stan Shih, chairman of Acer Inc; James Ousley, president of Control Data Systems Inc; Paul Maritz, senior vice-president, Microsoft Corp; Robert Miller, chairman of MIPS, and John Hennessy, its chief scientist; Hajime Sasaki, senior vice-president, NEC Corp; Elserino Piol, vice-chairman and chief operating officer, Ing C Olivetti & Co SpA; Dr Thomas Longo, chairman of Performance Semiconductor Corp; Dr Horst Nasko, vice-chairman, Siemens-Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG; Forest Baskett, senior vice-president, Silicon Graphics; James Treybig, president of Tandem Computers Inc; and D. Hideharu Egawa, vice-president and director, Toshiba Semiconductor Group.
