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Another Peep From Transmeta
Robrt writes: "According to this news.com article, the first Crusoe based products will be released at PC Expo. The article doesn't give much other information. " They comment that they're not sure if we'll see laptops or webpads, but we might see something. I'd love one of those webpads with the Lucent wireless, and say, 8-12 hours of battery life.
Word on the streets here in Taipei, Taiwan is that Transmeta will be making a major announcement at Computex 2000, Taipei (June 5th-9th).
Considering that a local manufacturer called FIC (First International Computer) plans to manufacture a Carusoe based web pad, and the fact that they will be making a Bluetooth demo at their booth (on PCs). I would guess that a announcement of a Bluetooth enabled webpad contract with some Taiwanese manufacturers would be the order of the day.
Because I live in Taipei, I will certainly be at the show, and I will be making up-to-date reports on my website... so be sure to tune in!
Tim
tim@mobilelinux.com
www.mobilelinux.com
We will either find a way, or make one.
- Hannibal
We will either find a way, or make one. - Hannibal
However, low-power means more than just battery life. It also means less EMI, at least from the processor. That might make for embedded processors in areas computers couldn't otherwise be in.
Now, if Transmeta could only come up with room-temperature superconductors... Now, THAT would reduce heat output!
After that, what's left? The hard disk is a big energy user, but you only need energy to overcome friction. Reduce friction, reduce power requirements.
Then, there's the floppy drive. Hardly anyone uses those, any more. (Apart from me. I've carried around the entire source for X11R6.3 on 3.5" floppies, before now!) Not a whole lot you can do, there, though. I suppose you could try spinning the read heads, rather than the disk.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
"I think that while these low powered CPU's are great, the real solution will be better batteries."
Better batteries would be great for extending running time, but as processor speeds increase, at some point you'll run into a fundamental problem. With such small form factors, these devices are going to have problems dissipating heat.
You could put in a small fan, but the fan takes up space and consumes part of your power budget. Heat pipes are compact and passive, but the heat still has to go somewhere, so they're only good up until the power dissipation is enough to make the case uncomfortably hot. At that point you must reduce power consumption.
To quote one of my favorite movies, "Yeah. And maybe I'm a Chinese jet pilot."
.. the Tazer?
I figure you'll see a screen size from 10" to 12", with the 14" being at the very top of the line. Especially for a touchscreen model. Sony's Vaio computers are weighing in at about 3 pounds for the really slim models. The only thing that has a touch screen that's less than a pound are the PalmOS units and the PocketPCs.
1/4" thick? I've seen those on Star Trek, but that's about it. The Palm V, which I believe is the thinnest of the Palm-sized PDAs, is still 0.4 inches thick. The Vaio's are about 0.9 to 1.2 inches thick, so I'd expect the touchscreen webpad to be about 1.25" or so. Remove any floppy drives (Compact Flash cards, only), install a Bluetooth unit into the back (and turn the back of the unit into one huge antenna), and it might come down in thickness to 0.75 inches.
There's my US$0.02.
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How about
The register reports that Transmeta has now 0.15 micron Crusoe CPUs. This leads to even lower power consumption than anticipated. Maybe with this they will be able to keep up with the new ARMs powerwise and the mobile Athlon performancewise.