Transmeta takes the Microsoft Tablet

Transmeta has inked a deal to power HPaq's Tablet PC. The 1Ghz Crusoe will be the CPU of choice for the Compaq Evo, and you can see pictures of the prototype here.

Although Transmeta has touted web appliances from day one, with its Debian-based reference design, Microsoft's Tablet PC calls for a much more expensive and functional device. It uses a full-blown version of Windows XP with added handwriting recognition at laptop prices. The Evo is due to ship later this year. Dell has yet to announce a Tablet device.

So at last, Transmeta gets to snag a major US OEM. It's won the approval of the biggest. Eighteen months ago IBM had a Crusoe-based Thinkpad ready to roll, but it was axed in mysterious circumstances, and never reached the stores.

It's the second piece of good news for Transmeta in the past month. Los Alamos Labs drew attention even from the mainstream press for its Crusoe-powered ultra dense blade cluster, an announcement personally blessed by Linus Torvalds and Gordon Bell.

(We can't remember a government supercomputer announcement garnering as much mainstream attention in years).

Despite our skepticism, our friends in the Microsoft ISV community are very excited about the Tablet PC, they tell us. But we should point out that you can actually buy a handheld XP device today from local start-up Tiqit today. (Report to follow).

Transmeta founder Dave Ditzel told Reuters that the Evo was the first of "the next generation" of smaller hardware. Is a Mira next? ®

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