Transmeta’s Crusoe
Ravi Madapati
Faculty Member
Icfai Knowledge Center
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The road ahead
Transmeta had sought to carve out a niche in the mobile processor market with a
low-power Crusoe chip that had been popular in the notebooks sold to users in
Asia, notably Japan, but had failed to capture a significant market share in
the US and Europe.One of the newer versions of Crusoe powered Hewlett-Packard’s
Tablet PC, which was announced earlier in 2003.
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Transmeta hoped the worldwide market for
embedded devices would help Transmeta go beyond its traditional geographic
strongholds. Thus, in early 2003 the company shifted its focus to embedded
systems. It released six new processors for embedded systems such as
point-of-sale terminals and industrial automation devices, focusing on an
energy-efficient design that alleviated the need for a cooling fan within
the device. Three different clock speeds were available for the new Crusoe
Special Embedded processors: 667 MHz, 800 MHz, and 933 MHz, with
standard-power and low power models available at each speed. Transmeta
also started building several security features into its chips for the
first time. These included an encryption engine and the ability to store
digital certificates and encryption keys. |
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The addition of the security features aimed at enabling
notebook makers build machines that made their owners’ passwords and other data
more resistant to theft. Transmeta envisioned the security features being used
mainly to protect data for notebooks used on wireless networks. Transmeta’s
approach set it apart from its major competitor, Intel. By building in
encryption, Transmeta was essentially giving away security features for free
with its processors. To add security to computers with Intel chips, companies
typically used separate security chips or added security software, which was
easier to thwart than hardware. To date, Intel had offered encryption features
built into chipsets—which were chips that handled data in a PC—but not its
processors. Extra chips added costs and design complexity to computers,
Transmeta argued, even if the additional costs were small. Transmeta chips that
included the new technologies would go on sale in large volume to computer
makers starting in the second half of 2003.
Meanwhile, Transmeta was also working on a new chip for notebooks. The chip,
code-named Astro, not only promised lower power consumption than the Crusoe
family of processors but also better performance.
References
1. “NEC Recalls Transmeta Notebooks,” Computergram Weekly, November 30 ,
2000.
2. “Toshiba Considers Transmeta Chip Despite NEC Recall,” Computergram Weekly,
December 6, 2000.
3. Damore, Kelley, “Crusoe Map Hits Streets,” Computer Reseller News, December
4, 2000.
4. Mainelli, Tom, “Transmeta’s Chip Comes In: Notebook Runs Longer but Slower,”
PC World, December 2000.
5. McDougall, Paul, “Transmeta Transcends Bear Market For IPOs,”
InformationWeek, November 13, 2000.
6. “NEC Recalls Transmeta Notebooks,” Computergram Weekly, November 30, 2000.
7. “NEC Recalls Transmeta Notebooks,” Computergram Weekly, November 30, 2000.
8. “Transmeta TM5800 to Ship in Volume by Year-End,” Computergram Weekly,
November 19, 2001.
9. Murphy, Tom, “Transmeta Staging Comeback,” Electronic News, October 22,
2001.
10. Gain, Bruce, “Transmeta targets notebooks,” EBN, October 22, 2001.
11. Jones, Dan, “Transmeta to Enter Embedded Market with TM5600,” Multimedia
Futures, October 19, 2001.
12. “Transmeta Plumps for TSMC for 0.13-Micron Shrink,” Computergram Weekly,
June 26, 2001.
13. “Transmeta Wins Toshiba, but Without Battery Life Hype,” Computergram
Weekly, May 8, 2001.
14. Gain, Bruce, “Microsoft, Transmeta combine to take on a chancy market,” EBN,
April 2, 2001.
15. “Transmeta Rubs Shoulders with Intel on Tablet PC Project,” Computergram
Week, March 27, 2001.
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