[ Thanks to Kelly
McNeill for this link. ]
“I recently read MIT’s Technology Review and came across an
article on Transmeta and the Crusoe chip, “The Software Chip,” by
Claire Tristram.”
“The article said that the Crusoe chip had put most of the
functionality normally expected in hardware into a software layer.
With a 128-bit bus, it was consequently capable of running 32-bit
Intel applications at a comparable speed to native Intel
hardware.”
“A quick examination of the Transmeta site assured me that
Technology Review was merely giving a review of what Transmeta had
succeeded in doing. Transmeta had succeeded in placing much of the
operating functionality of the commonplace or garden variety
silicon into software.”