Microsoft Corp planned Windows NT as its first multi-platform product, but it hasn’t turned out too well beyond the Intel heartland. Accordingly, Microsoft announced yesterday that it is now in the process of phasing out future development and engineering efforts for the MIPS RISC platform. The decision, says Microsoft, was driven by decreasing demand for MIPS-based systems from its customers and OEMs. In particular, the largest customer for NT 4.0 on the MIPS platform, NEC Corp, has said that from 1998 it will use Pentium Pro only in its Express 5800 NT server line. Microsoft insists it has shown strong support for MIPS over the last five years. It will continue to offer technical support. Other MIPS/NT supporters, such as NeTpower Inc, DeskStation Technology Inc and Tandem Computers Inc have also been moving away from their MIPS commitments recently. That leaves only Siemens-Nixdorf/Pyramid and tiny Fremont, California-based UniMicro Systems Inc still nominally interested. Presumably, the Microsoft decision will scupper any remaining enthusiasm at those companies as well. Silicon Graphics Inc, a Unix champion, gave MIPS no resources to develop or encourage a separate line of NT business when it acquired the business a few years ago.
