Transmeta begins second year working for Sony

Transmeta is once again working for Sony and Microsoft. The processor power-reduction technology specialist said it would once again provide design and engineering services to Sony, which licensed Transmeta's LongRun 2 anti-leakage process in January 2005, leading to a two-year services deal being signed in March 2005.

Transmeta will work on a variety of projects, each lasting between three months and a year, it said. That takes the contract up to 31 March 2007, exactly 12 months after the last one expired and not co-incidentally the end of Sony's current financial year.

Transmeta said Sony may set up further projects which will involve its input, but it didn't indicate what they - or the projects that it will definitely be working on, for that matter - involve. It is believed they centre on cell processor-related projects, but neither Sony nor Transmeta have confirmed this.

Last month, Transmeta confirmed it was also working on "proprietary" projects for Microsoft. Again, it has never said what work it's doing for Microsoft, but it's thought most likely to relate to the Xbox 360's emulation code that allows the console to run old Xbox games. Well, some of 'em, anyway.

Instruction set translation was a key component of Transmeta's Crusoe processor architecture, as was the original LongRun power-conservation technology. ®