Boer Krelis bezorgde ons dit nieuwsbericht over de Crusoë-processor van Transmeta. Er gaan geruchten in "het circuit" dat de processor aanstaande woensdag, 19 januari geïntroduceerd zal worden. Over de processor zelf is eigenlijk nog heel weinig bekend. Het gaat om een zgn. Very-Long-Instruction-Word (VLIW)-processor die gebruikt kan worden in bijvoorbeeld Webpads of Handheld computers. Een grote rol is weggelegd voor embedded software, waarvoor Linux-oprichter Linus Torvalds is aangetrokken. Hier een stuk uit het nieuwsbericht:
Industry sources say they believe the company will unveil an embedded-class very-long-instruction-word (VLIW) processor, called Crusoe, which will be showcased in a handheld Web pad or similar downsized browser equipped with an embedded version of the Linux operating system. The Web pad will have been designed with an unspecified partner, those sources speculated.
Transmeta has declined to comment, maintaining the same wall of secrecy it erected when it opened its doors in 1995.
"Transmeta is not giving any press interviews in advance," Dave Ditzel, founder and chief executive officer of Transmeta Corp., told EE Times this week. "So anything you see printed before [Wednesday] Jan. 19 is still guesswork." [break] Het schijnt dat Transmeta ook bezig is met het ontwikkelen van een goedkope concurrent van Intel en AMD 32-bits processors. Ook dit is echter nog grotendeels in nevelen gehuld:[/break] Indeed, the buzz at Comdex about an embedded info-appliance chip eclipsed longstanding talk that Transmeta was preparing a cost-busting rival to Intel's high-end 32-bit chips.
Such thinking evolved because of the expertise of the initial Transmeta team. In addition to Ditzel, Transmeta acquired ample hardware expertise when it hired many members of the Texas Instruments team that was disbanded after TI decided not to go ahead with a Pentium-class clone.
But industry sources speculate that Transmeta did build a processor but that chip could not outperform an equivalent Intel Pentium-class offering.