Another objective is to improve data streaming, which is a very common requirement in communications and multimedia applications. Predicated execution improves instruction execution flow in reducing branch and jump operations. To this extent, a conditional data move instruction was added to the architecture, achieving a considerable performance improvement. Improving multimedia processing is another goal that would benefit an embedded system. Some of these instructions have been available in processors from some of MIPS Technologies' licensees, but were not part of the standard architecture.
Many applications require processing DSP algorithms and calculating graphics operation in real-time.
These improvements make the MIPS32TM a superior RISC processor implementation with higher performance. In addition, it standardizes several important functions with the benefits accruing to both development tool vendors and system developers alike. The MIPS64TM Architecture also provides a standard for implementing the privileged and cache control mechanism. In addition, the MIPS64TM architecture includes a MIPS32TM compatibility mode that ensures that all MIPS32TM code will execute on MIPS64TM platforms. A flat memory architecture provides a large linear memory address space for memory intensive applications and wide, fast system busses enable very high performance.