MIPS, a leading semiconductor design firm, has announced an ambitious new strategy involving the sale of its patents and acquisition of its operating components by two separate companies.

Bridge Crossing will acquire 498 of MIPS' 580 total patents for $350 million. MIPS will hold onto the remaining 82 patents, which it has deemed essential to its semiconductor architectures, and be granted a "royalty-free, perpetual license" to all the assets sold to Bridge Crossing.

After this transaction goes through, MIPS and the remainder of its patent portfolio will be acquired by multimedia and communication technology specialist Imagination for $60 million.

"Importantly, as part of Imagination, the MIPS architecture will continue to be supported, and protected by MIPS patents," MIPS CEO Sandeep Vij explained. "This highly successful outcome builds upon the rich heritage of the MIPS processor architecture, while effectively monetizing the company's valuable patent portfolio."

Vij anticipates that the collaboration between MIPS and Imagination experts will create several viable and "highly influential" alternatives to existing CPUs available in the marketplace. According to PC Magazine, this could be a definitive moment for the future of smartphones and tablets as the MIPS-Imagination duo gives traditional mobile processing leader ARM a more serious source of competition.