news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-2949585.html?tag=st.ne.1002.thed.ni -> news.com.com/2100-1040-246716.html?legacy=cnet&tag=st.ne.1002.thed.ni
Vaio PictureBook laptops containing 27 Crusoe processors were released in Tokyo on Saturday (Japan time), Sony executives confirmed. For consumers, the most likely place to find the new notebooks will be the Akihabara, Tokyo's sprawling, modern electronics shopping area, said sources in Japan. The appearance of the notebooks will mark a watershed moment in Transmeta's history. The company has developed a family of Intel-compatible processors that purportedly consume less power than competing chips from Intel or Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). As a result, Transmeta notebooks promise to be thin and light (because they need less insulation and no fans) and capable of running longer than other notebooks on a battery charge. To get the same performance from a standard processor "I would have to lose some mobility by adding fans" or batteries, Hanson said. Transmeta's claims haven't been tested by third parties. Although the Crusoe family 28 debuted in January, neither the chips nor products containing the chips have been released on the open market. Analysts and independent benchmark testers have also complained about a lack of access to demonstration models. I know I haven't," said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight 64, who added, "The claims that are being made about battery life are a bit hard to swallow. Crusoe chips perform many functions in software that other chips perform in hardware. David Ditzel Invariably, this will cause a performance hit, Brookwood and other chip experts have said. The question now is whether the dent in performance is substantial or irrelevant. Dave Ditzel, Transmeta's CEO, 29 said in September that Crusoe-based notebooks will perform just as well as competing chips in real-world circumstances. Hanson also pointed out that the new chips will be going into notebooks that haven't been able to take advantage of the latest technologies from Intel or AMD. The Vaio line the Crusoe chip will be featured in has, to date, depended on Pentium MMX or Pentium II processors, not Pentium IIIs. Recently, Transmeta filed documents to raise $140 million in an 30 initial public offering.
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