Transmeta kan rekenen op brede belangstelling van Taiwenese notebook-fabrikanten, nu maar liefst 20 bedrijven hebben aangekondigd dat zij de energie zuinige Crusoe processor in hun produkten gaan verwerken. Taiwan is belangrijk voor Transmeta, aangezien dit land verantwoordelijk is voor 60% van de wereldwijde notebook produktie. Vrijwel alle top 10 laptop fabrikanten laten hun produkten op dit eilandje assembleren.
Onder meer Quanta Computer en FIC hebben notebooks en Internet Appliances met de Crusoe CPU aangekondigd. Acer Labs heeft een Crusoe southbridge ontwikkelt en verwacht dit jaar al 1 tot 2 miljoen stuks te leveren. Vanaf 2001 worden naast IBM ook TSMC en UMC ingezet voor de produktie van Crusoe processors:
“We want to make a big splash in the market, and Taiwan is going to be part of it,” Transmeta's chief executive, David R. Ditzel, told EBN during an interview this in Taipei. “We see a lot of excitement in Taiwan.”Quanta Computer Inc. and First International Computer Inc. are among the 20 companies building Transmeta's Crusoe processors into their newest laptops and Internet Appliance (IA) products, according to Transmeta.
[...] Some 60% of notebooks sold by the world's top 10 PC manufacturers, including Dell Computer Corp., IBM, and NEC Corp., were made in Taiwan last year, up from 45% in 1998, he said.
Transmeta's office in Taiwan is the company's largest outside the United States, Ditzel said, adding that the Taipei branch employs a team of 10 people in sales, marketing, and technical support. Transmeta has 250 employees worldwide.
[...] Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. and United Microelectronics Corp., the two largest pure-play foundries in the world, are testing Crusoe for Transmeta, according to Ditzel. “2001 would be appropriate for us” as a date to begin using their foundries, he said. The company now uses IBM's fab to produce the Crusoe processors.
Check voor meer info dit artikel van EBN Online.