IBM to offer Crusoe ThinkPads
Computer manufacturer IBM claims it will demonstrate Thinkpad notebooks featuring Transmeta's Crusoe processors at the PC Expo in New York this month, according to reports Tuesday.
Last month Transmeta said that the show would reveal a number of big name manufacturing announcements although this does not mean IBM will be launching Crusoe-based lap top computers any time soon. If it does Transmeta will be going head to head with Intel, which currently dominates the lap top market.
The biggest challenge for lap top manufacturers has always been prolonging battery life. The Crusoe microprocessors' architecture has been designed to conserve power and this efficient architecture along with dynamic speed and voltage control capabilities, according to Transmeta, enables the chip to run at unusually low power levels. In order to run existing software, the chip uses so-called 'code morphing' software developed by Transmeta to translate Intel-standard instructions to Crusoe's own.
Transmeta launched its Crusoe range of chips in January amid a storm of publicity. The involvement of Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, and promises of revolutionary low power performance helped whet the appetites of observers. Announcing manufacturing deals and technology demonstrations will go further towards convincing the industry that Transmeta can deliver.
Transmeta is also partnering with AOL and Gateway to make mobile Internet devices later this year.
Gateway's announcement yesterday that Transmeta would supply chips for their Web pad Internet appliances generated a lot of hoo-ha about the decline of the Wintel duopoly. Go with Jesse Berst to read the news comment at AnchorDesk UK.
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