Debian MIPS Port
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIPS_architecture MIPS] is one of the first RISC CPU architectures invented around 1985. It was a radical design which removed many features deemed unnecessary, since the goal was to get the best possible performance from a limited transistor count. Back then, MIPS were powerful general purpose CPUs, and very successful in that role, until they lost ground to systems based on cheap mass-produced Intel-compatible CPUs. Lateron, the simple and elegant design allowed to create a wide range of low power CPUs targeted for embedded applications.
Today, MIPS is a popular architecture for embedded systems, with a strong presence in various networked devices, and spanning a range from 32-bit at 100 MHz to 64-bit at 1.2 Ghz. The current top-end is arguably the SC5832 made by [http://www.sicortex.com/prod_sc5832.shtml ?SiCortex], a compact supercomputer with 5832 CPU cores dissipating 600 mW each.
The Debian 'mips' and 'mipsel' [http://www.debian.org/ports/mips ports] support a range of older workstations and servers as well as a few newer embedded devices.
The global state of the development branch is tracked at ["mipsEtchReleaseRecertification"].
A howto for installing a SGI Indy over network is available at ["NetworkBootingIndy"].
External links of interest
General information about [http://www.linux-mips.org/ Linux/MIPS]
Release Critical Bugs for [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?which=tag&users=debian-release@lists.debian.org&tag=rc-mips mips] and [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?which=tag&users=debian-release@lists.debian.org&tag=rc-mipsel mipsel]
Package Status for [http://buildd.debian.org/~jeroen/status/architecture.php?a=mips mips] and [http://buildd.debian.org/~jeroen/status/architecture.php?a=mipsel mipsel]
Autobuilder graph for all architectures http://buildd.debian.org/stats/graph2-week.png