Yahoo Widget Engine gets more traction with MIPS deal

Yahoo is trying to become the de facto leader in putting web pages on the TV. That’s why it has cut a deal with MIPS Technologies, the chip design company, which will make it easy to run the Yahoo Widget Engine on TVs and other digital home devices.

At the Consumer Electronics Show, MIPS announced that it is developing a reference design with built-in Yahoo Widget Engine software for chips that are used in digital TVs. Yahoo’s ambition is to make the widget the preferred way for people to look at web sites on their televisions. With a remote control, users who have the engine can click on an icon and view web sites ranging from Yahoo’s front page to YouTube videos.

Kevin Kitagawa, director of strategic marketing at MIPS, says that the Yahoo Widget Engine is the platform of choice for web page viewing on high-end connected TVs. MIPS, meanwhile, has the largest market share for processor chips used in digital TVs. It competes with rivals such as Intel in the space. Companies such as Broadcom are MIPS licensees. That is, Broadcom uses MIPS processor designs in its own chips and then customizes them with its own Broadcom-created components to come up with a unique product.

Aside from TVs, MIPS processors are used in chips for digital cable set-top boxes, satellite receivers, digital video recorders, DVD players, Blu-ray disc players, and telephone-based set-top boxes.

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