By Jo Ticehurst, VNU
Net
Success is not guaranteed for Transmeta’s Crusoe chip, despite
the hype surrounding it and prototype demonstrations by major PC
vendors last week.
IBM was one of four vendors demonstrating Crusoe-based
notebooks at last week’s PC Expo trade show in New York. But the
company has stressed that it was just showing a prototype, and that
an actual product launch depended on customer demand.
Leo Suarez, program director at IBM, said: “Our engineering team
will be validating that we can bring to market this type of
machine. We are talking to customers to gauge their interest and,
based on a successful engineering design and positive feedback, we
will be willing and ready to introduce a Transmeta mini-notebook in
the fall.”
IBM said the PC Expo demonstration merely showed its
“capability” to launch a Thinkpad 240 based on the processor, but
it needed to fine tune the power management circuitry and gauge
interest from its customers before launching a product.
Big Blue said that if this demand existed, it would be ready to
launch the Crusoe-based Thinkpad by the fourth quarter of this
year.
Andy Brown, a senior analyst with IDC, said: “Crusoe has some
powerful savings, but demonstrating the technology is slightly
different to saying they are definitely bringing out products.”
Transmeta also showed notebooks from NEC, Hitachi and Fujitsu,
which incorporated its battery-friendly chip. A notebook based on
the chip, and weighing around three pounds, could potentially run
for eight hours before running out of battery life, compared to
only a couple of hours on current high-power ultralight
notebooks.
Brown added that it was unlikely that chip giant Intel would
allow Transmeta to steal a march on it in the notebook arena.
“Intel’s Speedstep technology allows lower clock speed and lower
wattage. Surely what Transmeta is offering is not radically
different to that. It will all depend on pricing,” he said.
“Intel will not make the same mistake it made with AMD’s K6-2.
It was slow to react with its Celeron chip and allowed AMD to push
into the lower end of the market. All Intel has to do is cut its
prices dramatically to squeeze [Transmeta] out of the market,” he
added.