 | August 1, 2000 |
On course
ENGINES: Crusoe sets sail for mobile space
If all goes well for upstart chipmaker Transmeta, its new Crusoe mobile processor will not get marooned in the rough waters of the PC chip market. Competing directly with Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, Crusoe debuted earlier this year to much acclaim but few customers. The company, however, stormed the recently held PC Expo, showing off a raft of design wins in Internet appliances, as well as portable PCs.
Utilizing Transmeta's Crusoe 5400 processor and LongRun power management software, demo notebooks from Hitachi, IBM, and NEC touted a combination of low weight (3 to 3.5 pounds), long battery life, and multimedia performance.
However, major PC companies, such as Dell and Compaq, are holding off on adopting the new chip.
Where Transmeta has already found success is in the emerging Internet appliance market. Gateway has signed with Transmeta to use the Crusoe 3120 in Internet appliances it is developing with America Online. Both Gateway and AOL are investors in Transmeta. The Crusoe processor runs a mobile version of open-source operating system Linux.
According to Gateway, the chip's extended battery life, smaller size, and lower operating temperature make it particularly well suited for the mobile devices. AOL and Gateway touted a counter-top device, a wireless Web pad, and a desktop appliance. Needless to say, the new appliances will automatically run a customized version of AOL's Internet service.
Also at PC Expo, Transmeta showed off some other potential uses of its processors within a wireless home environment. The demo featured Internet appliances performing wireless exchanges of data, such as video, among multiple machines simultaneously. Transmeta also displayed Crusoe-based home gateways that will offer advanced features, such as the ability to cache Web sites locally.
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