AMD and Transmeta, together again. The last time it was to provide
code-morphing versions of Sledgehammer for developers, this time it's part
of a broader groundswell behind AMD's "HyperTransport" technology, which
the company maintains can speed data transfer across devices by up to 24
times. Transmeta also cites Sledgehammer's software compatibility with existing 32-bit
systems as a good reason to pass on Intel and IA-64.
"David Ditzel, Transmeta's founder and chief technical officer, said his company chose to adopt
AMD's x86-64 architecture over Intel's because it is more compatible with today's 32-bit
computing and support environment, where in many cases, upgrading to IA-64-based systems
would require large investments in new software as well.
"We think it's a better approach than having to abandon all your software and start over again,"
Ditzel said."
