MIPS is known for chips used in home entertainment products such as digital TVs and Blu-ray disc players, but its processor designs are also used in a few tablets, including one made by Philips. They are mostly lower-end Android devices sold in emerging markets like China and Indonesia.

It hopes to move up the food chain with a new processor design called , an implementation of its MIPS32 architecture.

MIPS says its proAptiv core will be half the size of ARM's upcoming Cortex-A15 CPU but offer equivalent or greater performance. That could help manufacturers to build smartphones and tablets that compete better with Apple's iPhone and iPad, something they have so far struggled to do.

"It's pretty much a direct competitor for the Cortex-A15," said Mark Throndson, product marketing director at MIPS, on the sidelines of the Hot Chips conference.

The new design is still a way from finding its way into a finished product, however, and it remains to be seen if MIPS can challenge ARM, whose chips dominate the smartphone and tablet markets.