A new multithreading architecture called MIPS MT ASE (multithreading architecture extensions) comes by way of MIPS Technologies. It provides coarse-grain and fine-grain multithreading support on a single processor. Its lightweight thread design also allows migration of threads between processors in a symmetrical-multiprocessing (SMP) system. As with other multithreading designs, threads take advantage of stalls in the superscalar architecture due to cache misses. Higher system utilization thanks to improved efficiency helps reduce system power, since more work can be done at a lower clock speed. MIPS MT ASE is aimed at future MIPS designs.
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