Transmeta continues to lead the charge for energy efficient computing and this was reaffirmed when the company released its Crusoe TM5000 series processors. Transmeta raised industry attention that a megahertz (MHz) race at the expense of poor energy efficiency was not in the best interest of mobile computer users. Users who want efficient computing, more work per watt, or longer battery life in mobile devices continue to be interested in Transmeta's message. Transmeta's initial efforts were well received by some market segments, still other ignored the Transmeta message.

Last year at Comdex, we talked a little about Transmeta's next generation (Astro) TM8000 processor which focuses on improving the user experience by increasing computing efficiency. The TM8000 processor will feature the ability to execute up to eight instructions per clock, compared to only four instructions per clock for other processors. The TM8000 also will include three new high performance bus interfaces.

The TM8000 includes an on-chip 400 MHz HyperTransport bus interface, for increased input/output efficiency. The new processor also includes an on-chip Double Date Rate 400 (DDR-400) DRAM memory interface. DDR-400 DRAM substantially increases throughput over earlier DDR-266 interfaces. The TM8000 includes an on-chip AGP-4X graphics interface for industry standard, high performance graphics solutions, which of course opens the possibility of both ATI and Nvidia mobile GPU product wins.

The TM8000 (Astro) was first demonstrated to us privately at COMDEX in November 2002 and we were impressed with the level of enhanced performance that Astro offered when compared to other processor solutions. Currently, the product is sampling, and from our understanding many OEMs are excited about the performance that TM8000 can deliver. A more formal introduction of the TM8000, and its new brand name, will occur later this year (we expect this sometime in the second quarter). The TM8000 will be fabricated in TSMC's advanced 0.13 micron semiconductor technology and Transmeta seems to be confident that it should be in mass production during the third quarter of 2003.

Our initial reaction to Astro as been positive! From what we have seen from Transmeta, it would appear that they have spend the last three year developing the Astro and things are starting to pay off for them. The need for a more efficient solution for mobile computing to reach the quest of eight hours of continued performance is perhaps possible and maybe Astro might be able to pay a roll in this. Transmeta continues to work with OEMs to develop more efficient solutions for notebooks and tablet PCs. One thing is for sure and that is Astro's design details at least open up the range of possible design wins for Transmeta.