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Well, they ended up being mobile-oriented, but even that didn’t work. They were definitely not server-oriented and they really couldn’t compete at desktop. Hone

Well, they ended up being mobile-oriented, but even that didn’t work. They were definitely not server-oriented and they really couldn’t compete at desktop. Honestly, while the tech was interesting, it wasn’t really solving a problem that anyone was struggling with.

organsnyder 1y ago
> it wasn’t really solving a problem that anyone was struggling with They did push the envelope on efficiency. My Crusoe-equipped laptop could go six hours on the stock battery (12+ on the extended batteries) back when most laptops struggled to get three.
- drob518 1y ago
  Yes, but wasn’t most of that because its performance was low? If you had dialed back the performance of an equivalent Pentium (model whatever was current at that time), would it have been in the same power ballpark?
  - organsnyder 1y ago
    No, there was no way to "dial back" performance in any meaningful way. This was before CPU throttling was really a thing.
dlcarrier 1y ago
They probably would have worked well as server processor, because they were pretty energy efficient, but they were slow the first time a program was run, but sped up after caching the translation. Most servers run the same software over and over again, so they could have been competitive. It would have been an extremely difficult time to enter the market though, because at the time Intel was successfully paying server manufacturers to not offer superior competing products.
MikeNotThePope 1y ago
Transmeta did try to enter the server market. There was a company called RLX Technologies that wanted to use Crusoe chips in blade servers. I remember them demoing a 3U rack server w/ 24 blades in it. 1 CPU per blade. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RLX_Technologies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RLX_Technologies RLX entering the market in 2002: https://www.serverwatch.com/guides/transmeta-1-ghz-crusoe-boosts-rlx-blade/ https://www.serverwatch.com/guides/transmeta-1-ghz-crusoe-bo... RLX exiting the market in 2005: https://www.techmonitor.ai/hardware/rlx_exits_blade_server_biz_focuses_on_software https://www.techmonitor.ai/hardware/rlx_exits_blade_server_b...

organsnyder 1y ago

> it wasn’t really solving a problem that anyone was struggling with They did push the envelope on efficiency. My Crusoe-equipped laptop could go six hours on the stock battery (12+ on the extended batteries) back when most laptops struggled to get three.

drob518 1y ago
Yes, but wasn’t most of that because its performance was low? If you had dialed back the performance of an equivalent Pentium (model whatever was current at that time), would it have been in the same power ballpark?
- organsnyder 1y ago
  No, there was no way to "dial back" performance in any meaningful way. This was before CPU throttling was really a thing.

dlcarrier 1y ago

They probably would have worked well as server processor, because they were pretty energy efficient, but they were slow the first time a program was run, but sped up after caching the translation. Most servers run the same software over and over again, so they could have been competitive. It would have been an extremely difficult time to enter the market though, because at the time Intel was successfully paying server manufacturers to not offer superior competing products.

MikeNotThePope 1y ago

Transmeta did try to enter the server market. There was a company called RLX Technologies that wanted to use Crusoe chips in blade servers. I remember them demoing a 3U rack server w/ 24 blades in it. 1 CPU per blade. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RLX_Technologies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RLX_Technologies RLX entering the market in 2002: https://www.serverwatch.com/guides/transmeta-1-ghz-crusoe-boosts-rlx-blade/ https://www.serverwatch.com/guides/transmeta-1-ghz-crusoe-bo... RLX exiting the market in 2005: https://www.techmonitor.ai/hardware/rlx_exits_blade_server_biz_focuses_on_software https://www.techmonitor.ai/hardware/rlx_exits_blade_server_b...