Hitachi is the latest Japanese laptop maker to adopt the Transmeta Crusoe notebook chip.

The company is expected to announce details of its new B5-sized notebook tomorrow.

The potentially very low power consumption of Crusoe is proving irresistible to notebook computer manufacturers, although early machines have so far demonstrated little improvement in battery life over conventional x86 chips.

Companies that have committed to Crusoe-based machines include IBM, NEC, Gateway 2000, Sony and Fujitsu. ®