EE Times:
Transmeta set to introduce Crusoe
processor
By Alexander Wolfe
EE Times
(01/13/00, 6:04 p.m. EST)
SARATOGA, Calif. ? The mystery surrounding the much-anticipated processor
launch by Transmeta Corp. will finally unravel next Wednesday (Jan. 19).
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."
At Comdex last November, speculation ran rampant that Transmeta was poised to
field a downsized microprocessor capable of powering handheld information
appliances a la Palm Computing's Pilot.
Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux and Transmeta's best-known employee,
further fueled those flames at Comdex when he stated in a keynote speech that
Crusoe would be essentially "software-powered."
Though Crusoe "does have something to do with mobile computing," an info
appliance is not necessarily the objective, said Ditzel. "There will definitely be a
few surprises that no one has even come close to yet. Check our Web site,
because on the 19th, the truth will be out there."
Pentium killer?
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.
Perhaps that's why Torvalds' high profile had everyone from programmers to
pundits thinking that Transmeta is a software-oriented company rather than a
fabless chip vendor, and that Torvalds had become a driving force behind the
company's activities. Some experts pointed out, however, that Torvalds did not
join Transmeta until well after it was formed.
Indeed, some believe Transmeta is wisely using Torvalds' Linux connection as a
form of "spin control" since there's no reason handheld Web browsers can't be built
using other embedded processors or OSes.
more.........
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