See MIPS Run, 2nd Edition

Preface

This book is about MIPS, the cult hit from the mid-1980s’ crop of RISC CPU designs. These days MIPS is not the highest-volume 32-bit architecture, but it is in a comfortable second place. Where it wins, hands down, is its range of applications. A piece of equipment built around a MIPS CPU might have cost you $35 for a wireless router or hundreds of thousands of dollars for an SGI supercomputer (though with SGI’s insolvency, those have now reached the end of the line). Between those extremes are Sony and Nintendo games machines, many Cisco routers, TV set-top boxes, laser printers, and so on.

The first edition of this book has sold close to 10,000 English copies over the years and has been translated into Chinese. I’m pleased and surprised; ...