Market recognition MIPS Computer Systems’ top of the league position in the RISC performance stakes has arrived swiftly, with both Bull SA and Nixdorf Computer AG announcing yesterday that their RISC future lay with the MIPS R-series RISC family. MIPS rates Bull its biggest catch yet, and the new endorsements come the week after MIPS scored best in the first independent benchmarks of workstations (CI No 1,278). The OEM deal with Groupe Bull, said to be worth an initial $100m, has the Sunnyvale company particularly excited because as UK managing director Dave Black put it, everyone wanted to get this one: it is believed to have beaten the Sparc and 88000 RISC technologies from Sun Microsystems and Motorola Inc for the business. MIPS is to supply its R Series of processors, complete systems, compiler software and its implementation of the Unix operating system under both the Bull and the Nixdorf agreements. The Bull agreement comes in two parts, the first being a 10-year commitment by Bull for MIPS’ R3000 architecture – but thought not to include the older R2000 chip – the second is a three year deal for MIPS’ future technology, based on the forthcoming R6000 chip. The news comes on top of Bull’s announcement (CI No 1,280) of a new DPX/2 series of Unix machines based on a 25MHz Intel 80386 and 25MHz and 33MHz versions of the Motorola 68030. A 68040-based model is to be added as soon as volume shipments of the new part begin. The Intel and Motorola systems are intended as entry-level and mid-range offerings, to be topped off by MIPS R3000-based systems due for launch by the middle of next year. They are to be complemented by Bull’s newly revealed Open Software bundle that includes Oracle 6.0, Informix, Uniplex, Unify, Alis and Motif – which will run right across Bull’s DPX/2 family.
