Transmeta set to Introduce Crusoe Processor

senthilp sent us a nice article about Transmeta which basically wraps up all the loose ends hanging out, and sums up the leading speculation on what transmeta will announce. The officail launch date for Crusoe is Jan 19 (next wed) and Chris DiBona is gonna be there with a richochet on his laptop and hopefully broadcast to IRC what is going down. So anyway, we've only got a few days left to speculate: the leading rumor is a VLIW processor which will be demonstrated in some sort of PDA or Handheld running Linux. But speculation is running rampant: I've heard that they were working on a superior version of The Kernel's Secret Blend of Herbs and Spices, and before that it was a carbon dioxide fueled teleportation device so who knows. grimsaado sent us details on the Crusoe in another story with slightly more realistic speculation.

Comments

Some further speculation

[jd]

• The patents would not restrict the Crusoe processor to just doing 80x86 instructions.
• Given the extensive background in multimedia of some of it's employees, it's likely to be a tad more powerful than a standard palm-top processor.
• Assuming that Ditzel's work in extreme-end, unconventional technology is the least-bit relevent, it's not impossible that he's also looked at wafer-scale architecture, transputer-style parallel-processing, and other fringe designs that are technically superior but were too far ahead of their times to be really -used-.
• Ditzel is going to be the most listened-to man on the face of the planet, on Wednesday.
• Chances are, anything Transmeta have made will be faster than equivalent Intel processors, even if they used valves and charge-carrying slugs.
• "Unconventional", given the presence of Linus, means what it says. Don't expect a clone of an existing device.
• Any group that can maintain that level of security for as long as they have are no amateurs. Even if they only release a bowl of petunias and a surprised-looking Sperm Whale, count me as being significantly impressed by what -hasn't- happened. They haven't even done official "unofficial" leaks, to boost outside interest. This is a company driven by engineers, not the marketing division.