Intel's Competitor to the Crusoe Processor

TJ6581 writes "C|Net news has an article up about Intel's new competitor(s) to the Crusoe Processor. Apparently the new chip uses half a watt of power and did not require a major re-design. Also mentions in the article that IBM will be using this processor in the notebook originally designed for Transmeta's processor." Update: 01/30 06:48 PM by H : This is the update to the story I posted last October - Intel has come through.

Comments

Regardless of what you feel about Intel

[Hardwyred]

You know, regardless of how you feel about Intel or Transmeta, this proves that competition is a great thing. When we just had AMD vs Intel, it was all about Mhz. Who would get to 1 gig first and then beyond. Now we have Transmeta and suddenly its not just about fast, but efficient also. This is really what the MS trial should be about. Agree to Disagree that Microsoft is a monopoly, but they really dont have the competition that Intel has in AMD/Transmeta. Good things come to the consumer from competition, and after playing with Windows ME, MS could definetly use a Good Thing.

...and the geek shall inherit the earth...

Intel vs. Transmeta

[vlatko]

Intel is big, and they can pull this marketing thing for a while. What
they did is produced the chip that works fast when the notebook is used as
desktop computer, with power adapter on. As soon as the power adapter is
unplugged, the chip goes to being slow.

Besides, really nice technology about Crusoe is that it can detect when
user is having high demand on its laptop, and speed things up, then switch
to low consumption when the computer is idle (like while you're watching
something on the screen, not doing much). Intel has not developed such
technology, it might, but not this year. What Intel is dumping the market
with slow processors that consume less power, something expected for a
while now, and make it sound like they're onto something big.

Quite an expected low punch. Good marketing and excuse for US PC makers
to offer slower laptops for higher price. It will take a deployment of
Crusoe based products, such as new Sony laptop, to debunk the myth. Will
the Transmeta survive? If they have enough money and one or two faster
chips for this year, I would think in deed.

Plus, Intel plans to produce those chips in a year. A long time, specially after delays.

Does this strike anyone else as funny?

[handorf]

The Register story on this read as "Intel targets Transmeta". Doesn't that kind of strike you as "Intel Targets Joe Blow"?

An Intel spokes-droid said today "Since we've utterly failed to compete with AMD, we've decided to set our sights lower. Transmeta, watch out! We're taking your nonexistant market share!"

Silly Intel, just make some decent chips.

Not exactly powerful

[rgmoore]

While it does have low power consumption, it's not exactly brimming with processor power. To get below 1 watt, they have to drop the speed of a PIII to just 300 MHz. Of course that's still plenty to run office programs or an mp3 player, but it's hardly revolutionary.

Transmeta needn't worry.

[Urban Existentialist]

Although Intel have an impressive grip on the processor market, I am tempted to buy shares at this news. You see, the foolish reactionary types who make buy/sell decisions at the major brokers will doubtless make a kneejerk reaction and announce Transmeta dead. However, I think that the future is still bright for Trandmeta. The market for these types of chips is growing hugely, and Transmeta have a head start. There is no reason why they shouldn't be able to improve what they have above and beyond what Intel have, especially considering that Intels engineering department appears to be run by the marketing department. We have seen the consequences of this with the P4.

Also, as Transmeta reduce feature sizes, they should be able to break into the embedded market at some stage over the next few years. I fear for Intels future, in this regard.

Transmeta have a bright future, despite this news.

You know exactly what to do-
Your kiss, your fingers on my thigh-