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Concept
Transmeta
Summary
Transmeta Corporation was an American fabless semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California. It developed low power x86 compatible microprocessors based on a VLIW core and a software layer called Code Morphing Software.
Code Morphing Software (CMS) consisted of an interpreter, a runtime system and a dynamic binary translator. x86 instructions were first interpreted one instruction at a time and profiled, then depending upon the frequency of execution of a code block, CMS would progressively generate more optimized translations.
The VLIW core implemented features specifically designed to accelerate CMS and translations. Among the features were support for general speculation, detection of memory aliasing and detection of self modifying x86 code.
The combination of CMS and the VLIW core allowed for the achievement of full x86 compatibility while maintaining performance and reducing power consumption.
Transmeta was founded in 1995 by Bob Cmelik, Dave Ditzel, Colin Hunter, Ed Kelly, Doug Laird, Malcolm Wing and Greg Zyner.
Its first product, the Crusoe processor, was launched on January 19, 2000. Transmeta went public on November 7, 2000. On October 14, 2003, it launched its second major product, the Efficeon processor. In 2005, Transmeta increased its focus on licensing its portfolio of microprocessor and semiconductor technologies.
After layoffs in 2007, Transmeta made a complete shift away from semiconductor production to IP licensing.
In January 2009, the company was acquired by Novafora and the patent portfolio was sold to Intellectual Ventures. Novafora ceased operations in August 2009. Intellectual Ventures licenses the Transmeta IP to other companies on a non-exclusive basis.
Transmeta produced two x86 compatible CPU architectures: Crusoe and Efficeon – internal code names were 'Fred' and 'Astro'. These CPUs have appeared in subnotebooks, notebooks, desktops, blade servers, tablet PCs, a personal cluster computer, and a silent desktop, where low power consumption and heat dissipation are of primary importance.
Official source
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