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Transmeta Mulls Exit From Processor Market

Posted by timothy on from the they've-already-made-it-up-in-volume dept.

chill writes "C-Net is reporting that CPU upstart Transmeta, once the employer of Linus Torvalds and maker of 'Code Morphing' processors, is contemplating leaving the chip manufacturing business. Already their IP licensing revenue exceeds that of their microprocessor sales, though both are dwarfed by their recurring quarterly losses."

2 of 202 comments (clear)

  1. Re:This is what happens in today's "free market". by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Virtually every field nowadays seems to be ruthlessly dominated by one or two (if you're lucky, three) titanic competitors. Trying to break into an existing market is tantamount to financial suicide. Not because newcomers have bad ideas or make bad products-- but because the "mindshare" of the unwashed masses is so stuck on the existing titans..

    You overlook a once tried-and-true strategy, which doesn't seem to have happened in this case:

    Devise some clever new bit of technology

    Burn venture capital (or even your own money if you're confident) waving it under the big noses in the industry.

    Sell out

    Logically you'd expect Intel, IBM or AMD to snatch them up as some sort of IP asset or leverage against a competitor, but Intel's scrambling against AMD, which hasn't exactly had lots of money to burn on other fronts, which left IBM who probably will pick up the ashes, unless Microsoft does and uses it for their Windows Processor ...

    (Please note, I did not include

    ...
    and

    Profit!!!
    above. Thanks.)

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  2. Re:Transmeta by Simulant · · Score: 5, Interesting


    I agree. And I'm an ex-employee, assuming that counts for anything.

    They should have been GIVING away small form factor reference designs. They ones they did sell weren't all that great, geared mainly to laptop vendors... and way over priced.

    That said, people still drool over my small, Crusoe based, laptop; especially after they've watched the SECOND movie with out changing batteries. It's the only laptop I own which I never fear running out of juice on. With a couple of batteries, I can fly just about anywhere in the world with out having to recharge. If only it had a bit more cpu power....