“IBM’s decision to dump its planned Crusoe-based ThinkPad
240 had nothing to do with benchmarks, and everything to do with
Intel, according to sources close to Transmeta. Quanta, which
was to build the machines, was surprised when the project was
abruptly cancelled; one Transmeta partner who declined to be named
told The Register: “It was on schedule, fully functional, and IBM
were very happy with it.”
“Taipei sources are adamant that Intel put the squeeze on IBM.
The company – which you’ll recall was recently entirely vindicated
in an antitrust case – is claimed to have told Big Blouse that
Intel CPUs and chipsets might be in desperately short supply. Even
more so, for even longer, that is.”
“Our anonymous Transmeta partner also asks for a history of
similar offences on Chipzilla’s part to be taken into account. “It
happened on a Cyrix Media GX project I was involved in a while
back. Intel offered us a special deal if we cut the Cyrix
design.”