Posted by
ryuzaki0
on from the getting-duh-money dept.
rak3 writes "Transmeta has received $88 million in investments from AOL, Gateway, Compaq, and Sony among others. Now where's my Sony Vaio with Crusoe inside :) " Wow - pretty cool - congrats to Transmeta.
Sounds like a lot of speed loss but the benchmarks will prove the point
Transmeta has already said that a 700MHz Crusoe will perform comparably to 400MHz Pentium II, but that the average user won't notice (and I tend to agree).
Of more intrest, lower voltage means lower heat.
Which means laptops without fans -- another (tiny) reduction in the power demands.
Christopher A. Bohn
-- cb
Oooh! What does this button do!?
Maybe I'm just blind...
by
Master+Switch
·
· Score: 3
But I don't see the point of Transmeta. Sure, maybe five years ago when Transmeta was just beginning, a low power X86 chip was in need. But, today, I don't see the point. The biggest Power hog for most moderate performance laptop devices(including so called web-pads) isn't the CPU, it's the damn backlit color display. Shaving wattage off of cpu requirements will not gain you much in laptop time. Now, you can say that the super fast laptop chips are power hogs, no one will argue that a PIII mobile running at 600+ MHZ isn't a serious lap heater. The problem is that Transmetta doesn't seem to be able to compete with the high speed chips. So, that targets Transmetta at the midrange laptop device, which again, doesn't suffer from CPU drainage, as much as it suffers from screen power drainage. Now, what happens when the battery manufacturers start to make inroads into higher power density batteries, well, power consumption becomes less of a worry. Now, you could argue that the Transmetta chip could be targeted at devices other than laptops, but here we find that X86 compatablility is a non-issue. Most cell phones use ARM's, PDA's use either MIPS or Motorla 68K variants. You don't need to run PC binaries on these devices. Since power consumption isn't a problem for these chips, what would be the push to use Transmetta chips here? It certaintly wouldn't be performance, since that is not what Transmetta touts as a selling point. It wouldn't be cost either, since ARM's, M68K's, and MIPS variants are all dirt cheap, and can be had from various suppliers, all of whom have a proven track record of delivery. So, no real market in the midrange laptop arena, no market in the high end laptop arena, no market in the PDA and Cell Phone arena. Hmmmm, what market is the Transmetta CPU targeting then? Now, it's cool technology, but I just don't see a strong market for it. I sure hope I'm wrong.
-- -Master Switch, one more element in the machine
Re:Linus Leaving Soon? I think not...
by
DreamerFi
·
· Score: 3
The H1B rules have some set aside for people who are considered to be 'exceptionally' valuable to the US, and as far as I know Linus has one of those, so his employment is not relevant to his visa status. Also, I suspect that if Linus wanted a green card, all he'd have to do is drop a hint, and the immigration services would roll out the red carpet...
Can anyone say "Crusoe-based AOL set-top box that just might be running Linux inside"?
Not that I want an AOL-only set-top box, but the possibility of AOL sending out millions of under-$100 single-purpose set-top PCs in the mail instead of CDs is kinda kicky.
Ok, so maybe I'm living in fantasy land a little bit. At least they'd be more useful than those stupid CDs...
-=-=-=-=-
--
-=-=-=-=-
My mom's going to kick you in the face!
Doesn't seem like THAT much.
by
Asparfame
·
· Score: 3
Lots of stock market gurus are beginning to assert that wireless technology will be the the next booming market as the Internet is now.
Companies all over the planet are making billions off of the Internet. Cisco made $500 billion in only 10 years! If Transmeta is going to be such a fore-runner in the field of wireless, a field that will supposedly be exploding in value in the near future, why is 90 million dollars a lot?
I'd expect there to be several sets of "handcuffs" to hold him at Transmeta for a while yet, notably:
I'm sure that Linus has a bunch of stock options, but. Stock option plans tend to have some stipulations.
They tend to vest over time.
Thus, if Linus has options to $20M of shares, it is fairly likely that he only has part of that now, and that leaving now would cost him big.
Those options that aren't vested are lost if he leaves.
At this point, Transmeta stock isn't publicly traded.
Repeat after me: Not Publicly Traded.
I've gotten phone calls from people (morons!) who want to buy Transmeta stock who thought that my Speculations About Transmeta indicated that I actually owned shares.
Despite the "excitement," there is no public market in the stock. Any stock that has vested in Linus Torvalds' hands doesn't have a market in which to sell it.
The theory that the stock is somehow "worth something" is only made true when there is actually a public market in Transmeta stock. Maybe that will happen next year; I suspect it won't be this year.
For those that didn't know, Linus Torvalds is Finnish. He is not an American citizen. And so, his employment at Transmeta is at the "sufferance" of the INS, under an H1B visa.
If Linus walks away from Transmeta, he will very likely not wind up employed by a US company, as he would be asked, fairly shortly, to return to Finland.
As for why Transmeta hired him, I would tend to think that they wanted something more than just a marketing figurehead.
Suggesting that he's a worthless figurehead is decidedly "flameworthy;" I don't have to be part of the Linus Personality Cult to find that distasteful.
Long and short is that there are a number of reasons why Linus is not likely to leave Transmeta tomorrow.
-- If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
AOL + Gateway + Crusoe + Linux = Wireless Web Pad
by
Booker
·
· Score: 4
AOL and Gateway are working together to make a linux-based wireless web pad with a Gecko based browser - I guess this means it'll have a Crusoe chip in it. Cool! Maybe they'll tuck 'em into magazines for free....
AOL release is here and the Gateway release is here
---
Amazing how CNET gets things wrong!
by
Merlin_
·
· Score: 4
"Transmeta, which aims to take on Intel in the processor market, announced that it has received $88 million [snip]".
I guess that the author of this story on CNET was not at the Transmeta press conference way back when. Transmeta is _not_ looking to take on Intel. They specialize in the mobile market, where Intel has not made serious efforts. Looks to me to just be sensationalist journalism. And 88 Million is nothing much for a chip company considering that Transmeta has been running on Angel money for the last 5 years... a lot more than 88 million.....
--
Remembering your name in the morning is already a good start...
Slashdot Mirror
Transmeta has already said that a 700MHz Crusoe will perform comparably to 400MHz Pentium II, but that the average user won't notice (and I tend to agree).
Which means laptops without fans -- another (tiny) reduction in the power demands.
Christopher A. Bohn
cb
Oooh! What does this button do!?
But I don't see the point of Transmeta. Sure, maybe five years ago when Transmeta was just beginning, a low power X86 chip was in need. But, today, I don't see the point. The biggest Power hog for most moderate performance laptop devices(including so called web-pads) isn't the CPU, it's the damn backlit color display. Shaving wattage off of cpu requirements will not gain you much in laptop time.
Now, you can say that the super fast laptop chips are power hogs, no one will argue that a PIII mobile running at 600+ MHZ isn't a serious lap heater. The problem is that Transmetta doesn't seem to be able to compete with the high speed chips. So, that targets Transmetta at the
midrange laptop device, which again, doesn't suffer from CPU drainage, as much as it suffers from screen power drainage. Now, what happens when the battery manufacturers start to make inroads into higher power density batteries, well, power consumption becomes less of a worry.
Now, you could argue that the Transmetta chip could be targeted at devices other than laptops, but here we find that X86 compatablility is a non-issue. Most cell phones use ARM's, PDA's use either MIPS or Motorla 68K variants. You don't need to run PC binaries on these devices. Since power consumption isn't a problem for these chips, what would be the push to use Transmetta chips here? It certaintly wouldn't be performance, since
that is not what Transmetta touts as a selling point. It wouldn't be cost either, since ARM's, M68K's, and MIPS variants are all dirt cheap, and can be had from various suppliers, all of whom have a proven track record of delivery.
So, no real market in the midrange laptop arena, no market in the high end laptop arena, no market in the PDA and Cell Phone arena. Hmmmm, what market is the Transmetta CPU targeting then? Now, it's cool technology, but I just don't see a strong market for it. I sure hope I'm wrong.
-Master Switch, one more element in the machine
The H1B rules have some set aside for people who are considered to be 'exceptionally' valuable to the US, and as far as I know Linus has one of those, so his employment is not relevant to his visa status. Also, I suspect that if Linus wanted a green card, all he'd have to do is drop a hint, and the immigration services would roll out the red carpet...
Can anyone say "Crusoe-based AOL set-top box that just might be running Linux inside"?
Not that I want an AOL-only set-top box, but the possibility of AOL sending out millions of under-$100 single-purpose set-top PCs in the mail instead of CDs is kinda kicky.
Ok, so maybe I'm living in fantasy land a little bit. At least they'd be more useful than those stupid CDs...
-=-=-=-=-
-=-=-=-=-
My mom's going to kick you in the face!
Companies all over the planet are making billions off of the Internet. Cisco made $500 billion in only 10 years! If Transmeta is going to be such a fore-runner in the field of wireless, a field that will supposedly be exploding in value in the near future, why is 90 million dollars a lot?
There's no reason for a sig here.
Thus, if Linus has options to $20M of shares, it is fairly likely that he only has part of that now, and that leaving now would cost him big.
Repeat after me: Not Publicly Traded.
I've gotten phone calls from people (morons!) who want to buy Transmeta stock who thought that my Speculations About Transmeta indicated that I actually owned shares.
Despite the "excitement," there is no public market in the stock. Any stock that has vested in Linus Torvalds' hands doesn't have a market in which to sell it.
The theory that the stock is somehow "worth something" is only made true when there is actually a public market in Transmeta stock. Maybe that will happen next year; I suspect it won't be this year.
There was a Slashdot story on this; see Workers - Including Linus - Left in Limbo by INS
If Linus walks away from Transmeta, he will very likely not wind up employed by a US company, as he would be asked, fairly shortly, to return to Finland.
Suggesting that he's a worthless figurehead is decidedly "flameworthy;" I don't have to be part of the Linus Personality Cult to find that distasteful.
Long and short is that there are a number of reasons why Linus is not likely to leave Transmeta tomorrow.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
AOL release is here and the Gateway release is here
---
"Transmeta, which aims to take on Intel in the processor market, announced that it has received $88 million [snip]".
I guess that the author of this story on CNET was not at the Transmeta press conference way back when. Transmeta is _not_ looking to take on Intel. They specialize in the mobile market, where Intel has not made serious efforts. Looks to me to just be sensationalist journalism. And 88 Million is nothing much for a chip company considering that Transmeta has been running on Angel money for the last 5 years... a lot more than 88 million.....
Remembering your name in the morning is already a good start...