[ Thanks to Kelly
McNeill for this link. ]
“Several laptop-producing companies have constructed
demonstration units using the Transmeta Crusoe processor for
computer shows and proclaim that they could have something ready
before Christmas. One of these companies, IBM, stated that they
were specifically looking for customer input (or at least a
statement of desire) before they put such a product to market. I
have searched for “Crusoe” on IBM’s website without finding a
location for such an input, so I am sending feedback to
http://www.ibm.com/contact/query with the following information. If
you are interested in such a product, I urge you to do the
same.”
“I’m very interested in seeing (and hopefully purchasing) a
Crusoe powered ThinkPad because, from what I read, I don’t think
Intel’s chips will be able to scale their power down as effectively
in the near future. Much of my laptop’s use involves a lot of
typing into an editor, which should consume almost no processor
power. Even if speech recognition becomes more common, I still
spend a fair amount of time reading and thinking in front of the
screen. The minimum operating power figures for the Crusoe indicate
it should do very well in these idle modes as well as having a very
efficient sleep mode. I often can’t get my current laptop to sleep
for even a day without running out of batteries, which is
ridiculous. I don’t want to have to reboot just to save power.
I hope that Crusoe can enable a laptop to sleep for months even on
4 AA batteries. Many people have pointed out that other components
become more important once the processor becomes around 1 watt
(let’s say the Intel chips do well at this level). This leads to
the first feature I want out of a new ThinkPad (or competitor’s)
design.”