Reuters: ARM, Psion stock hit by Crusoe mobile processor

“Shares in palmtop computer group Psion and microchip designer
ARM Holdings Plc fell on Thursday as investors worried about the
impact of a radical new low-power mobile chip on their
business.”

“Privately owned Transmeta Corp’s new Crusoe chips, produced
with help from the Linux operating system creator Linus Torvalds on
a promise to “revolutionise the field of mobile computing,” raised
longer-term concerns for both groups, analysts said.”

“In the medium term, this chip is aiming squarely at the market
ARM is aiming towards,” said Nainish Bapna, technology analyst at
Nomura.”

“A key feature of Crusoe is a new software layer which lets the
chips behave like Intel processors, supporting Microsoft Windows
and NT operating systems. But they can also drive a mobile version
of the Linux alternative. “The chip can handle any operating system
— you can put it anywhere,” Bapna said.”

“(Transmeta) are really looking for pretty much the whole
spectrum,” said Dean Bubley, chief analyst at Datamonitor.”They
really are looking to take large chunks of the semiconductor
market, and to some extent operating systems software.”

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