Easier To Sell IP Than CPUs?

Transmeta Corp., whose cool-running Crusoe and Efficeon processors have displayed ample technological innovation but attracted a relatively small number of slimline PC, blade-server, and thin-client customers, says it will increase its business focus on licensing its intellectual property in 2005 and will complete a critical evaluation of the economics of its current business model -- stock-market talk for a possible end to developing and selling X86-compatible CPUs -- later this month.

During 2004, Transmeta licensed its proprietary LongRun2 technologies for processor power management and transistor leakage control to NEC Electronics and Fujitsu Limited. Today, the company says it is in active discussions with industry leaders about licensing not only its power-management but "Code Morphing" processor designs -- very long instruction word (VLIW) chips that use a software layer to translate and execute X86 instructions -- while surveying the economics and competitive conditions in the X86 market.