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Transmeta TM8800 And Ultraportable Announced

Posted by timothy on from the smaller-than-a-breadbox dept.

yerdaddie writes "The just-released Transmeta TM8800 has been integrated into a new ultraportable from Sharp. The smaller 90nm variety clocks and performs better than the older 130nm TM86XX Efficeons. It also seems the Orion Multisystems personal clusters discussed earlier on slashdot will be built around this processor variant. Hopefully Transmeta will be releasing a developer kit soon for eager hardware hackers."

6 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. transmeta cpus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    why is it that i still can't buy transmeta cpus easily to stick onto also easily available motherboards? these days low power, running cool and reliable are more important than high performance (24/7 devices).

  2. transmeta is so cool but.. by John_Allen_Mohammed · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How can I buy a transmeta chip and build a system from one ? I checked pricewatch but they dont list transmeta chips... and what sort of motherboard do they clip onto ? It seems to me, at least, they're cool factor (linus a former hacker) is very high but in reality it's very ambigious when it comes to the real world.

    Love to put to get a mythtv box with a transmeta chip at its heart but I guess that's not possible so far :( :( :(

    --

    Skype Me! username: john_allen_mohammed
  3. From what little I can gather from the article... by Tuxedo+Jack · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It looks to have the following abilities/specs:

    1.26 kilograms (2.772 pounds)
    1.6GHz Transmeta processor
    Wireless B/G using an Atheros device
    CD/DVD drive
    Some kind of hyper-brightness ability for the screen
    Windows XP SP2 (NX flag support)
    ATI Mobility 7500 (probably at least 64MB RAM, since it says the laptop can play FFXI, and that's kinda video-intensive)
    A switch to convert from normal-power mode to mobile-power mode (thus changing processor efficiency and other things)
    Some kind of remote control a la the iPod Remote

    I can't read kanji and hiragana, so I'm quite out of it.

    I assume that Linux support will be forthcoming from the community for this, as Sharp states that they recommend XP Professional SP2 for this device at the top of the page.

    --

    Striking fear in the authors of godawful fanfiction, I am here, appearing in darkness, Tuxedo Jack!
  4. Use as external hard drive by BWJones · · Score: 4, Interesting

    and a Dirrect HDD function which lets you hook it up to another PC over USB and use it as an external hard drive (if only this were standard on every laptop).

    I have been wondering how long it would take the Windows world to adopt this feature. Of course it has been shipping with every Powerbook since the very first one (I believe the Powerbook 100 back in 1990 or 1991). Of course back then it was with SCSI and now it is with Firewire leading me to wonder why they used USB?

    --
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  5. CPU Efficiency Comparison by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I am curious; is there any comparison chart of the efficiency (MIPS/Watt) of various CPUs?

    I wonder how the Transmetas really score...compared to PowerPCs, for example.

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    Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
  6. Devkits? Transmeta is too closed. by istartedi · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Transmeta is too closed to hackers. That's part of the reason it's failing. Few hackers are going to buy one of their $1000+ devkits when they can get a mini-itx board for $200. Yeah, the 'meta board can supposedly peform better without a fan, but so what? Transmeta has no clue. They could have started a revolution, instead they tried to push disruptive technology through channels that didn't want disruptive technology.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?