Compaq dropping Transmeta plan?
As Transmeta Corp. went public in an enormously successful offering, news that Compaq Computer Corp. has canceled plans to use the company's Crusoe chip in a forthcoming line of notebooks began to hit the tech and financial presses. Unless the news proves false, this is the second major reversal for Transmeta as IBM Corp. decided only days ago not to use the Crusoe in an upcoming ThinkPad line. Moreover, at least one insider says Toshiba is also jumping from the Crusoe ship. Compaq is reportedly going to use a forthcoming Pentium III that Intel is designing using its own power-saving technology. Analysts believe that disappointment over Crusoe's speed and battery performance has played a role in these decisions but many also believe it likely that extremely aggressive competition from the well-funded Intel Corp. plays an important roll in the pullbacks from Transmeta.
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