[moved] question about ARM and MIPS architecture

[will_fung]

For a Hardware Engineer, while we use a chip based on ARM or MIPS platform, is there some technical knowledge we should know? And is there some point we should pay more attention between this two different architecture?

Thank you very much.

 

[shaiko]

The short answer is...maybe.
From a pure hardware engineering point of view - when selecting a microcontroller for a project you'll have to consider these important aspects:

1. Raw computation power (not just speed).
2. Memories.
3. peripherals.
4. Power consumption.
5. Cost.

Choosing between ARM vs MIPS vs any other platform - may effect these parameters.
ARM and MIPS are core architectures that offer many device families from many different vendors.

 

[Dan Mills]

However the bigger picture is that it is NOT a pure hardware decision, and given the availability of suitable parts in both varieties of core you will then want to look at (In no particular order):

• Available software expertese.
• Toolchains.
• Documentation quality (There is a very common line of mips based parts that fall down badly here).
• Libraries.
• production programming.
• Integration into a JTAG scan chain.

Do not treat this as a pure hardware question, it really isn't.

Regards, Dan.