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{subhead} Transmeta Revealed (aka: We Waited For THIS?!){def}{p}
Article by Mark Tierno
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Gee, one month and TWO opinion columns; what a month. Well, Transmeta
has finally unveiled their "revolutionary" Crusoe processor. After all
the hype over Transmeta in the now-former Gateway days, I decided a
quick thumbnail analysis was needed. Let's see what 5 long years of
research has netted them.
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The new chip seems to have 3 major selling points that has them crowing
throughout the PC world: 128-bit CPU, power consumption under 1 watt,
and a special version of Linux imbedded into the ROM.
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First. 128-bit CPU. Impressive, except that the G4 chip from
Motorolla was there first and with 4 instruction pipelines as well. So,
no revolution there.
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Next low power consumption. Nomore then a watt at the worst of times.
Well, 30 watts may be standard fare for PCs, but here in the rest of the
world it's not the case. Just check out anything by Motorolla or any
non-Intel-wannabe. Last I checked my own 060 it was rated in
MILLI-watts. This isn't a revolution so much as an "it's about time you
joined us".
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And lastly, the OS. A special Linux streamlined enough so they could
imbed it directly into a ROM chip; no longer having to load your GUI OS
off that Hard Drive. Wow! But wait, where have I heard of this before?
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...That's right, everyone EXCEPT the PC world has it. MACs and our
trusty old Amiga have had imbedded chips since Day 1. Amigans have
never known any OS that wasn't directly on a ROM chip. This isn't old
news for us, it's Ancient History.
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So after 5 years of research and billions of dollars and all that talent
and effort, the best they could come up with was to re-invent the wheel.
Gateway had the very solution right in their hands and never looked
twice at it.
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You think maybe if the PC world stopped for a good long look around, that
they might see what's already available and stop all this frantic waste
of time? Or is it that they don't want to admit they were wrong in the
first place and are STILL trying to patch over their mistakes.