Transmeta confirmed its arrival as a major chip supplier today - by issuing its first product recall.

Fewer than 300 NEC notebooks in Japan are affected by the glitch and are being "exchanged" for new parts. In a statement, Transmeta said the dodgy Crusoes "came from a limited manufacturing batch. Any remaining inventory of this material at NEC or other customers has been returned to Transmeta".

Transmeta wouldn't elaborate on the nature of the problem. According to Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbum the difficulties came to light when NEC testers tried to reinstall the OS.

Compared with the numerous recalls during Intel's Caminogate travails - with successive Vancouver and Cape Cod mobos recalled resulting in hefty compensation to their manufacturers and downstream component manufacturers - this is small beer.

NEC is the second notebook OEM to ship Crusoe-based PCs after Sony. ®

Unrelated Recall

Caminogate recall fiasco rolls on (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/11971.html)

Recent Transmeta Stories

Intel power tech catches Transmeta. In, er, 6 months - IBM (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/14783.html)
Transmeta talks 256-bit Crusoe (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/14710.html)
ViA (no relation) to use Crusoe in next gen wrist watch PC (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/14601.html)
IBM knifes Crusoe ThinkPad on eve of Transmeta IPO (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/14370.html)
Transmeta talks benchmarks... and ten hour charges (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/14298.html)