Feature Story

MIPS Plans Expansion, Pulls New CEO from TI

The recent growth in RISC-V interest and adoption is hard to deny, and MIPS, a developer of high-performance RISC-V compute IP, is looking to grow right along with the rising tide.

To drive that growth, the company recently announced it has brought on a new CEO, embedded systems industry veteran Sameer Wasson. Wasson has reportedly been tasked with to pushing market penetration and innovation across vertical markets.

Wasson previously spent 18 years at Texas Instruments (TI), where he was responsible for the company's processor businesses, and re-established TI as a mainstream microprocessor (MPU) and microcontroller (MCU) supplier for the valuable automotive and industrial markets, while grabbing a presence for TI in embedded AI, software defined vehicles, and electrification. That experience is perhaps a good indicator of where MIPS is looking to expand.

In the announcement, MIPS said Wasson is set to accelerate the company’s goals in the high-performance RISC-V market, especially as it continues to expand its footprint in the automotive and enterprise markets.

"With Sameer at the helm, we are excited to continue to enable customers to create innovative and transformative RISC-V designs," said Desi Banatao, Chairman of the Board of Directors, MIPS. "Sameer spent more than a decade leading large businesses and engineering organizations within TI, with a proven track record of delivering long-term sustainable growth. We are confident in his ability to drive growth and deliver exceptional value to MIPS customers and partners."

RISC-V has experienced significant momentum recently as it is used to develop processors for a wide variety of applications in embedded design, and the automotive industry in particular seems to be taking an interest lately for uses in infotainment, connectivity, advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving.

"As computing requirements become more complex, companies of all sizes are looking for alternatives to meet the challenging needs of AI, machine learning and high-performance domain specific accelerated compute," Wasson said. "MIPS has been on a strong trajectory to address these challenges with its new RISC-V compute IP, and it is a privilege to lead this dynamic and agile organization into its next phase of growth."

Return to: 2023 Feature Stories