But eventually the complexity of the circuitry began to impact the ability to reach higher speeds. In the 1980s a new architecture was pioneered by a company called "MIPS", now the MIPS Technologies, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Silcon Graphics, Inc. MIPS designed a microprocessor with a much simpler instruction set (Reduced Instruction Set Computer, or "RISC"). The simpler instructions let designers make the processor run much faster with fewer transistors, which results in lower cost.

RISC machines have to execute several of their simple instructions to do the same task that one "traditional" instruction can do, but they are so much faster doing each instruction that a net gain in performance results.

In 1989, MIPS licensed several semiconductor companies, including IDT, to build products using their architecture. Today, IDT builds more than 20 different microprocessors, all using the same MIPS architecture and instruction set, that offer a broad range of price and performance choices. The entire line of Silicon Graphics visual computers and workstations use these products, as do many laser printers, arcade games, and communications equipment. Several of the designs for the new "set-top boxes" - multifunction in-home boxes for new cable-based information services - use the MIPS architecture as well.

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