Just because Android runs on MIPS doesn't put it at parity with Arm, Brookwood said. Google's Android development is done on the Arm platform, and companies with other chip architectures usually have to take the new release and convert it.

"They are always a little bit behind what the Arm guys can do," Brookwood said.

But MIPS may hold an advantage over Intel through its licensing model, which provides chip makers flexibility to build custom chips. Intel, on the other hand, has its own factories, and a stranglehold over integration of cores and other elements inside a chip.

MIPS has a solid presence in the embedded processor space, so entering the smartphone and tablet markets is a natural extension, said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research.

Unit shipments are exploding in the smartphone and tablet markets, and for MIPS, those are low-hanging fruit.