July 9, 2012 -- MIPS Technologies, Inc. and Vango Technologies Inc., a provider of chips for power grid and energy metering in China, announced that they are working together to provide solutions for the fast-growing China smart-grid market. Vango will leverage MIPS Technologies' MIPS32 M14K processor cores to provide 32-bit microcontroller functionality in smart-meter and smart-grid SOCs. Through the MIPS Alliance Program (MAP), the companies will also partner to promote reliable next-generation smart-grid solutions.

Currently, most power meters are based on 8-bit and 16-bit MCUs. While these MCUs meet current market needs, the future outlook calls for 32-bit MCUs to facilitate complex, uninterrupted and secure processing. 32-bit MCUs enable meters to scale for future needs, providing the hardware necessary to support tomorrow's sophisticated software, which can be updated in the field without interruption.

With its 8-bit MCU solutions, Vango is already an established supplier of solutions for China's power-grid market. Its chips have been adopted by tier-one meter companies in China, and are leveraged by the State Grid Corp. of China (SGCC), the world's largest utility. Vango is one of the largest providers of chips to SGCC's rural power-grid market, and is making inroads into urban markets.

About the MIPS32 M14K Core with microMIPS ISA

The M14K core offers advanced features that are optimized for MCU and real-time embedded applications. It incorporates the microMIPS code-compression instruction set architecture (ISA), which offers uncompromised 32-bit performance with exceptional code density by using an optimal combination of 16- and 32-bit instructions. Executing the microMIPS ISA achieves 98% of the performance with up to a 35% reduction in code size relative to MIPS32-only mode. The M14K core achieves best-in-class performance of 3.09 CoreMarks/MHz and 1.57 DMIPS/MHz in microMIPS mode.

About Vango Technologies, Inc.

Vango Technologies, Inc. was founded in 2006 as a mixed-signal IC consulting company which has since evolved into a fabless mixed-signal chip company. In addition to IP in mixed-signal design, Vango has been focusing on chips for smart grid and energy metering. Vango has a complete product offering for energy metering, including analog front-end (AFE) chips, and SOCs for single-phase and poly-phase applications. Vango is ISO 9001 certified and its metering chips are certified by national and international metering authorities. The company is headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, PRC, with R&D departments in Beijing, China.

Posted by: John Miklosz