Transmeta announces design win with NEC; chip maker attacking Intel in portable PC market

Transmeta announces design win with NEC; chip maker attacking Intel in portable PC market
By Semiconductor Business News
October 17, 2000 (2:24 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20001017S0040

TOKYO -- If Intel Corp. didn't have enough problems in the microprocessor market, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company now has another headache to contend with in the business--Transmeta Corp.

NEC Corp., Japan's largest PC maker, here today introduced a new notebook computer based on a 600-MHz, x86-based microprocessor line from Transmeta, also of Santa Clara.

The announcement represents the fourth major design win for Transmeta. Since last month, Sony, Fujitsu, and NEC have separately rolled out notebook PCs based on Transmeta's chip line, dubbed Crusoe. And, another Japanese OEM--Hitachi Ltd.--is reportedly developing a line of products based on its chip line as well.

In fact, Transmeta plans to give Intel a run for its money in the portable computer market, said David Ditzel, president and chief executive of Transmeta. This company is not focusing its efforts on the high-performance desktop PC market, but rather in the notebook PC and I nternet appliance businesses.

"Intel is still the leader in terms of volumes [in the x86-based processor market for notebooks]," said Ditzel in an interview at last week's Microprocessor Forum in San Jose. "But since we introduced out products, Intel has been paying a lot of attention to the notebook market. This has been good PR for us."

At the conference last week, for example, Intel disclosed its processor roadmap in the notebook market, in an effort to combat Transmeta in this growing business (see Oct. 11 story).

Still, Transmeta is grabbing the headlines-if not some key design wins in spite of reports around the industry that its chips are not running as fast as the company originally expected.

One OEM customer dismissed the rumors, however. "NEC is very impressed with the battery life and performance capabilities provided by Crusoe," said Osamu Iseki, senior manager of product planning in the Mobile Solution Division at NEC.

NEC's new notebook PC, called the LaVie MX, is a three-pound unit based on Transmeta's Crusoe processor. With a battery life up to 11 hours, the LaVie MX houses a 20-Gbyte hard drive, 128-Mbytes of SDRAM, and has a 10.4-inch reflective TFT display. NEC will begin taking orders immediately in Japan for the new LaVie MX. Prices were not disclosed.