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Transmeta TMS5xxx Reverse Engineered
Richard W.M. Jones writes "This fascinating article, published anonymously, dissects the Transmeta TMS5xxx architecture, revealing how to
access and modify the code-morphing code,
how the instruction set works, and tells why
you won't be able to run Linux directly on this
chip."
He also states that CMS appears to have been compiled with a hacked up version of gcc and binutils. Isn't failure to release modifications to GPLed code against the license, or am I missing something?
No, not unless they started distributing the binary of the modified gcc outside transmeta.
Rich.
libguestfs - tools for accessing and modifying virtual machine disk images
Actually the artical says that you can not run ANY os "Native" on this chip. Linux will run just fine using the same X/86 Code morphing system that runs windows.
What I wonder is could you come up with a more morphing friendly ISA than X86? What about then 68040 ISA? How would that work? ARM maybe?
Even if it is less than practical These chips could be good tools for playing around with new ISAs.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
"An x86 laptop like Toshiba makes gets about 1.5 - 2 hours of battery life. 3 if you only use things like Word, which let Speedstep and the like kick in. A 17" TiBook gets about 3-4 hours, again dependant on load."
I have a friend whose Dell Pentium-M powered notebook goes for 4+ hours.
Here is an example of a transmeta cluster.
LANL Transmeta Cluster (PDF Link)
And by cant run on the underlying hardware directly, you mean that you cant run on the bare core of the transmeta chip, as opposed to it's x86 translation layer?
As far as I know Linux runs fine on top of it's translation layer, as the chip was designed to do.
The Ro Factor - Jeep/Linux Weblog
No. They ship the output, which is *not* covered by the GPL.
Just to elaborate on what RzUpAnmsCwrds said a bit... For modern Intel based laptops, there are basically three levels of of power hunger.
Lower price laptops use the same CPUs (P4 or Celeron) as desktop PCs. These are great (aside from heat) if you keep them plugged in, but you may only get an hour or two of battery time.
Then there are the variants that are modified for lower power consumption, P4M / Mobile P4. These turn off some power wasting CPU features and run more power efficiently than desktop chips. These cost a little more but should keep you above two hours on battery life.
Finally, there is the Pentium-M, better known as Centrino as it is called when bundled with Intel's own chipset and wireless adapter. This is a different architecture, built with low power in mind. Intel basically started with a P3, which were less of a power hog than the P4, and added features to give it lots of processing capacity without making it need so much energy. The Pentium-M runs at a much lower clock rate than the P4, but executes more instructions per clock to compensate, and comes with a large cache. It's a really clever architecture, and you can get at least 4 hours of battery life, 7 if you use a secondary battery.
I'm not really sure how AMD and Transmeta stack up. Transmeta seems like they are aiming at the market segment that only needs a few hundred MHz instead of a full-blown desktop equivalent, willing to give up speed for low power use. The Pentium-M can be used in "ultra low power" configurations like this, but is most commonly seen in laptops that give a few hours of battery life while keeping performance on par with a desktop.
What model does he have? I own a Dell Latitude D600 (Pentium-M 1.6 GHz), and I've been a bit disappointed. I can't get more than 3 hours, even with the CPU running at 600 MHz, the display at low power and the disk spinning down when unused.
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