Goodbye Windows CE? (from PC World):
?Crusoe could kill Windows CE,? says analyst Enderle. Where battery life for Windows CE devices can be limited to as little as a few hours, a Crusoe-based Web Pad, for example, can run all day without a recharge. ?Crusoe has a special deep sleep mode that uses only 20 milliwatts of power,? says Ditzel. ?You could leave it on and come back two weeks later and the device would still be running.?
Notebook computers represent about 17 percent of the overall PC market according to Dataquest, and Transmeta is going after the fastest growing segment of that market: lightweight, under-four-pound systems powerful enough to run Windows 98 and support CD and DVD playback. In terms of battery life, ?Intel?s most recent mobile chips miss the boat,? says Enderle.
?Crusoe could generate all kinds of growth in mobile computing devices,? says Keith Diefendorff, analyst with Microprocessor Report. ?Yes, mobile today is 17 percent of the PC market, but Crusoe could spawn products that don?t exist today with new form factors, because it?s easier to work with than competing RISC chips.?
The Transmeta chip may even find its way into desktop systems. ?Nothing prohibits us from moving to the desktop, but first things first,? says Marc Fleischmann, a project manager at Transmeta.
Crusoe?s small size and aggressive price could let a PC maker create a very compact, inexpensive, and quiet desktop system. (For one thing, the Crusoe doesn?t need a fan to dissipate heat.) |
