osOpinion: The Obligatory Transmeta Article

[ Thanks to Kelly
McNeill for this link. ]

“What Transmeta announced was the diesel of the computer
industry, their products are all about getting the most out of the
limited power of the battery and are not looking to push
performance to the absolute limit. This high mobility/low
power focus dictates what market segments their chips will be used,
a point the executives at Transmeta stressed repeatedly during the
product launch. Other than that central point we learned several
other things from the Crusoe product launch….”

“Microsoft most likely isn’t thrilled at the thought of Mobile
Linux. Windows CE hasn’t made any major dents in 3Com’s Palm
Marketshare, mostly due to its power and RAM requirements. Its
interface has also been questioned, and it generally gets bad
reviews when compared to Palm’s straightforward appliance approach
to the palmtop market. With Transmeta offering solutions to
developers that combine the power management and long battery life
of the Crusoe with the openness and customization of Mobile Linux
these manufacturers can truly design and product products without
having to deal with Microsoft’s dominance….”

“On the hardware side, Intel will be the biggest problem between
Transmeta and industry adoption of the Crusoe chip. This is
obvious, they’re both hardware companies and they’re both looking
to sell into the fastest growing segment of the computer market –
the mobile market. On the low end the 333/400mhz Crusoe has a good
chance when competing against Intel. Mostly this is because Intel
simply does not have a product that can compete on the same
speed/power consumption levels….”

Complete
Story