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Sharp Debuts New Transmeta-based Laptop
kpogoda writes "Transmeta's new Efficeon processor will debut today within a new trim and slim Sharp notebook. In case you don't remember, the processor family is known for its extremely low power consumption and blazingly high computing speeds."
Seriously, though, this practice shouldn't be rewarded with more free publicity for these products or their "reviews".
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
...a laptop with a dedicated "portable" architecture. I can definately see Intel saying "More transistors, more power, more clock, and it'll be okay" - which is questionable on the desktop but not at all adequate with laptops. Transmeta's departure from this is an interesting turn of events - Will we see two separate processor lines, one for the laptop, and one for the desktop? And I don't mean the M-series, which just added variable clock and PM, but something like two different design philosophies.
:)
And damn, that's a sexy laptop...
toresbe
Why not choose a Transmeta powered port-a-box? What's the difference what's inside as long as you can run you necessary proggies? Does it really matter if AMD or Intel is inside? Does it really matter that it's Transmeta? How could you even tell, provided your software behaves as expected?
Their first chip Crusoe, although saving power, underperformed badly. And the Efficeon doesn't look fast compared to its rivals. The Efficeon TM 8000 can do 1.1GHz consuming 7W. Intel's Pentium M does 1.7GHz for the same power consumption.
I don't think there's anything particularly cool about this news. It is the same as the discovery of the new planet. There are better ones already out there.
Indefinitely Detained US Citizen
Of course both fans spinning will impact your battery performance but it's better than third degree burns on your... lap.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
As far as I'm concerned (and lots of people I know as well), the magic price point for notebooks financed from personal funds has become $1000 or less. After all, these are machines that are often "refreshed" every two years or less, I definitely don't want to spend much more than $500/year on notebooks. This Sharp is only giving me a slow processor, XGA and 20GB for $1500? Heck, I can get the ultra-slim Averatec 3150 for $900 (often for $700 refurbished), and it's got twice the HD and a faster mobile AMD to boot. Given that the backlight eats most of the power anyway, I doubt this Sharp will run all that much longer on a charge than the Averatec, Transmeta or no Transmeta.
Really, why is this even slightly +5 Interesting? Fair enough that you love the company...they did employ Linus for a while after all, and this is Slashdot, so I guess that counts for something. But Transmeta is nothing more than a hyped up dot.com remnant that hasn't realised that it should have crawled away and died somewhere a few years ago. Transmeta overpromised and underdelivered. Its CPUs have never really carved out a niche, suffering from terrible performance, and negligible gains in power efficiency over mobile designs from Motorola, Intel and AMD. Too underpowered for a mainstream notebook, and too power hungry for a PDA or cellphone, Transmeta CPUs linger on in a kind of zombie state, appearing from time to time in strange Japanese systems like this Sharp Actius, itself nothing more than a pale imitation of an Apple 12" G4 PowerBook.
You're entitled to your opinion. It's just -1, Clueless Linus Fanboy, not +5, Interesting.
Thank you.
Anyone know / care to comment how these chips compare with apples G3 and G4 laptops? I was under the impression that they were much less power hungry than intel and AMD's chips, which let them be lighter and have better battery life.
Obviously someone who's not used the Transmeta based Compaq Tablet. About as blazingly fast as a shackled tortoise. It does have great power consumption stats though :)
No, battery life is the problem too. These laptop batteries lose much of their capacity within a year if used on a daily basis. They're outrageously expensive. When are fuel cells coming?
Fred
"A fool and his freedom are soon parted"
-RMS
lemme check the calendar to make sure it aint april 1st.
Indeed, transmetas have an extremely low power-consumption rate, but one can't say they are fast, especially post-Enron; u can't fudge the numbers. If power consumption was a part of the performance index (let's say for a SpecInt or a SpecFP), then yea...it might be able to compete. But it's like Via's C3; its low power in more than one way.
Just like you can't have a Lamborgini that gets 60MPG, you ccan't expect to have low power with high power; only some balance of the two in between.
I know it is one of their big selling points but I have yet to have used a Transmeta device that actually had a longer run time than my huge Latitude C series with second battery. Why? Because for some reason manufacturers seem to have a fetish for the 2.5 - 3 hour benchmark. Once they reach it, they concentrate on size instead. Surely I can't be the only one who would be happy with a smallish (12-13") notebook with long battery life. I certainly find that more interesting than devices that are so tiny as to be unusable yet have comparable run time to normal laptops.