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Sharp Announces Crusoe-Powered Notebook

Latest product gives Transmeta's low-power CPU a sweep across Japanese notebook vendors.

Douglas F. Gray, IDG News Service

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Transmeta's low-power, long-lasting Crusoe chip now has a sweep across Japanese notebook manufacturers, with the announcement this week by Sharp Electronics that it is making a Crusoe-powered system.

Sharp's Mebius PC-SX1-H1 will ship first in Japan in June, the company says. The company claims the 3.2-pound notebook will run for as long as ten hours with a second battery.

The Mebius PC-SX1-H1 uses a 600-MHz Crusoe TM5600 processor. It comes with 128MB of memory, a 20GB hard drive, three Universal Serial Bus ports, a Smart Media card slot, an IEEE 1394 interface, and a 10.4-inch TFT screen, according to Sharp representatives. Pricing was not announced.

Endorsed in Japan

Sharp's announcement is the latest in a flurry of releases involving Transmeta's chips. In May alone, Toshiba, Casio, and Frontpath have announced they will use the company's chips in upcoming products. Sony also unveiled its latest Crusoe-powered VAIO this week.

In the eight months since Transmeta shipped its first Crusoe, all seven major Japanese notebook makers have announced Crusoe-based products. Already shipping are notebooks from Fujitsu, Hitachi, and NEC, as well as this month's announcements.

However, Transmeta is still seeking similar endorsements among U.S. notebook manufacturers. Several vendors, including IBM and Compaq, dropped plans to use the new chip in notebooks.

Recovering From Glitches

Transmeta experienced a few stumbles shortly after launch. NEC recalled some initial shipments after a memory caching problem was reported. Other Japanese manufacturers offered to replace faulty systems, but the problem did not appear to be widespread.

Still, U.S. vendors have been slower to adopt the low-power chip. Intel, meanwhile is developing its own battery-friendly CPU.

Several server vendors have chosen Crusoe, however. RLX Technologies, an upstart computer maker led by former Compaq executives, first showed its low-power server in May.

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