>>> It'd be challenging and a fun to try MIPS16 version of NetBSD/hpcmips
>>> (Vrt411x or later only) to judge the effect is worth doing or not.
>>
>> Great! I believe that it is effective much.
>
> Beware, please.  I think there is (was?) the constraint(s) to do so
> enforced by development tools as well as MIPS16 design itself.

"Because the number of useful registers are tighter, the resulting
code size might not necessary be smaller than normal".  That was the
statement about MIPS16 if I remember correctly about what I've read
long time ago.

Tohru Nishimura