Transmeta Corp will start selling next quarter a Crusoe chip that is as much as 50 percent faster than available models, staying ahead of Intel Corp in developing chips to help batteries in notebook PCs last longer.
The chip from the Santa Clara, California-based start-up, which is trying to eat into Intel's 80 percent market share, will process data at speeds of as much as 1GHz, Co-Founder and Vice Chairman David Ditzel said in an interview. Intel's fastest low-consumption chip for notebooks runs at 750MGh.
Transmeta, which has a ``Japan First'' business strategy, is trying to reach more customers in a country that's home to some of the world's smallest and thinnest notebook computers, Ditzel said.
Crusoe chips are found in PCs from most of Japan's notebook computer makers. The company has yet to make inroads with companies such as Dell Computer Corp and Compaq Computer Corp, which still favor Intel's chips.
``We need more time to see if Transmeta can be a real threat to Intel or not,'' said Toshiya Tsuchikawa, an analyst with Shinko Securities Co. ``Intel, for sure, will do something to counter [Transmeta's] move.'' Transmeta's Crusoe processor is used in laptops because the company says it helps batteries last longer. The company's chips use software instead of circuitry to perform some functions, requiring less battery power and producing less heat. That allows for smaller batteries and sleaker computers.
Sony Corp uses the chip in several versions of its Vaio laptop computer featuring a camera built into the computer's casing. Toshiba Corp also uses the chip in a new version of its Libretto notebook, a computer about three-quarters the size of a standard A4 piece of paper used in photocopiers.
``We really believe Japan is the leader in very small notebooks,'' Ditzel said. ``We believe the rest of the world will follow.'' The new chip, dubbed TM5800, will be made using 0.13-micron processing, the most advanced chip-making technology in use today, Transmeta says in a presentation to be delivered to the company's corporate customers in Tokyo yesterday.
Transmeta will begin shipping more advanced chips next year, Ditzel said, adding they will require less energy to operate and will function ``two to three times better'' than the TM5800.
Transmeta's TM5600 and TM5400 are made using the 0.18-micron process. Shrinking the size of a chip's circuit features allows chipmaking companies to pack more functions on to a single chip.
The processing technology also increases the number of chips that can be produced from a silicon wafer, the material from which chips are cut and packaged.
Intel will release an upgraded version of its currently available low-powered mobile Pentium later this year, said company spokesman Masatoshi Mizuno. A release date for the chip, which will be made using 0.13-micron technology, has not been set, he said.
Transmeta, whose shares have fallen 34 percent since its debut in November last year, has also entered into the market for chips used in servers, the powerful computers that run corporate networks and Web sites.
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