Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2000/01/28/when_crusoe_met_speedstep/

When Crusoe met Speedstep

Transmeta 'the new Betamax'?

By Drew Cullen

Posted in On-Prem, 28th January 2000 12:14 GMT

Transmeta's Crusoe chips represent the first serious technical challenge to Intel mobile processors, but can the company overcome Chipzilla's market dominance, the IT Network asks. Crusoe could end up "like Betamax -- leaner, meaner, arguably better -- and a long long way from widespread adoption", author John Sabine argues. He compares and contrasts the low-power consumption approaches of Intel Speedstep and Crusoe -- and comes out in favour of Transmeta. Unfortunately, he warns, "measuring the real benefits this reduced consumption will offer to battery life is something of an inexact science. Accordingly, Transmeta has fallen back on the old standby of generating its own benchmarks that seek to combine power consumption and performance. "Predictably, these results show Crusoe in a favourable light as against a (non-SpeedStep) PIII-500, with the new chip claimed to be between two and six times as efficient depending on the tasks performed. A pinch of salt may be needed -- but such claims won't last beyond the first chip availability if they are overly exaggerated". ® The full article is here. Webmasters, We recommend you use this URL for linking - http://www.itnetwork.com/solution6043. It will save you time.