It looks like Google intends to take itself into the heart of home entertainment, using Android as a platform to launch itself into the living room.

Just two months after it announced the porting of the Android platform to MIPS architecture, MIPS Technologies, a provider of processors and chips for home entertainment devices such as set top boxes, announced plans to make the Android MIPS code open source.

Working with other Android ecosystem partners and silicon manufacturers as well as the Open Embedded Software Foundation (OESF), an organisation dedicated to taking Android beyond mobile handsets, MIPS Technologies hopes to define standardised Android-based platforms for consumer devices such as set top boxes, digital TVs, mobile internet devices (MIDs), home media players and VoIP systems.

The silicon vendor also this week launched an Early Access Program for a small group of key customers who will have access to specific hardware and code optimisations before they are publicly available. These customers will work closely with the MIPS engineering team, providing critical feedback and market expertise.

Art Swift, vice president of marketing, MIPS Technologies, said: “Android presents a compelling value proposition in bringing internet connectivity and a broad range of applications to MIPS-based digital home devices. We are working closely with customers and partners to ensure that critical technologies are available for developers to take advantage of Android for consumer electronics.”