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IBM Wary of Crusoe?
Angus writes "VNUnet have just posted a story that IBM is being cautious about the future of Transmeta's Crusoe in production machines. Suggestion is that Intel is still the player for the future of portables." An interesting comment at the end: 'All Intel has to do is cut prices to squeeze transmeta out of the market'
You're so right. Here's what I've picked up from the latest c't magazine cpu-news column:
Intel has only been able to claim lower than 1 Watt consumption on their new SpeedStep CPUs trough a trick. They measure what they call "Average Power", which is supposed to simulate a realistic usage pattern. In reality, this means their cpus spend 80 to 95 percent of the time effectively turned of. Maximum consumption at 500 MHz and 1.1 Volt is still 8.1 Watt.
Now compare this to the Crusoe which is supposed to burn only 1 Watt while decoding an MP3 (1.8 for DVD decoding), and add to this that the Northbridge is _integrated_ into the Crusoe. An Intel BX chipset typically burns about 2 Watts, which would put the Intel cpu at around 6 Watt for something like mp3 decoding.
So, everything else being equal, the Crusoe is a long way ahead in terms of power consumption. Overall, since Crusoe integrates part of the mainboard chipset, it should allow for simpler mainboard layouts, which again translates into size and consumption savings (not to mention cheaper manufacturing).
I think Transmeta have a damn fine product, and Intel should really watch out if they don't want to lose a big part of the mobile market (hmmm, only the paranoid survive anyone?)...
I strongly believe that trying to be clever is detrimental to your health. -- Linus Torvalds
With Crusoe, Transmeta is playing in the second-most cutthroat market next to DRAM - the x86 CPU business. At one point, there were a plethora of x86 CPU's on the market. Now there is basically just AMD and Intel (I know Cyrix still exists through Via, but it's in a small niche until proven otherwise). And as much power as mobile chips burn, the other components burn as much or more power in operation, meaning that there will have to be some pretty darn compelling advantages to Crusoe for it to get design wins in traditional laptop systems. This is where Transmeta wants to play.
The caveat to this gloom is that Transmeta's chips can also be used for newer, non-laptop devices that can use different components and lower power budgets than traditional PC laptops. Mobile Linux is a factor here, too - the chips usually deployed in this product space (Motorola Dragonball - Palm, Intel StrongARM - the late Newton, WinCE, and others, Hitachi SH3 - WinCE, and a few other chips, too) have excellent performance and are generally light on power draw, but do not offer x86 compatibility. Transmeta brings that to the table with much less power usage than the AMD or Intel alternatives. This will allow companies to leverage the existing x86 software base and Unix software much easier than other platforms do. The "post-PC" market is where Transmeta will live or die.
The other thing to remember in this market is the cost factor. Intel and AMD already charge low prices for their mobile chipsets. Transmeta isn't trying to compete on a "bang-for-the-buck" basis, because they'll get slaughtered that way. Transmeta can't afford to go up against Intel directly like that, nor can they even afford to take on AMD. The answer is to "hit 'em where they ain't", to paraphrase Wee Willie Keeler, and play for the wireless, appliance, and PDA markets against those specialty chips.
It's definitely do-able, and Transmeta may get a few design wins in the laptop market as well - but any laptop chip sales are almost gravy on top of the appliance market. There's room for another player there - why not Transmeta?
- -Josh Turiel
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
I had always been under the impression that the reason Crusoe is such hot shit is that its power consumption is so low. So it's not blazing fast - big deal. Do you need to do 3-d rendering during your AM commute? Of course not.
Besides, handhelds are where Transmeta is really going to clean up. It seems to me like Transmeta isn't really going head-to-head against Intel. It's the ARM and Dragonball folks that should watch out.
What ever happened to the Crusoe Linux kernel that Linus was working on. Any news on that? I'm wondering - does it run in the x86 emulation mode, or in native and therefore faster Crusoe mode?
-carl
. We've got computers, we're tapping phone lines, you know that ain't allowed - Talking Heads, "Life During Wartime"
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Transmeta Unveils Copper Processor Manufactured by IBMCrusoe(TM) Chip Poised to Revolutionize Mobile Internet Computing
January 19, 2000
Transmeta Corporation today ended four-and-a-half years of secrecy with the introduction of Crusoe(TM), the world's first family of smart microprocessors. In a foundry relationship with Transmeta, IBM is manufacturing the new Crusoe chip in copper at MD's Burlington, Vt., site.
Transmeta's Crusoe processor family is based on a breakthrough software approach that will deliver on the market's need for "all day computing" with a PC-compatible, high-performance solution with low power.
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So, IBM is wary of a product they produce? I don't think so.
I'd rather have someone respond than be modded up.