Crusoe chip gets first support from Europe

Fujitsu-Siemens will launch a notebook computer based on Transmeta's low-power Crusoe chip for the European market early next year.

A company spokesman told vnunet.com that it will launch what it called its "lightest ever" notebook containing the chip, "probably at the Cebit trade show in Germany next March".

Europe has not featured in the rollout plans of other vendors launching Crusoe-based notebooks. Hitachi, Sony and Gateway will unveil products by the end of this year, but only for the Japanese and US markets. IBM has not specified which markets it will target.

Transmeta, which is planning a stock market flotation, launched its Crusoe chip in Europe at the beginning of the year. It claims Crusoe increases battery life in lightweight notebooks to eight hours, more than doubling the two to four hours provided by equivalent Intel chips. The company also claims that notebooks running the chips are quieter, because Crusoe does not need noisy cooling fans.

Tony Reilly, customer focus marketing manager at Fujitsu-Siemens, said he could not provide many details about the Crusoe notebook, but said it would be a "500Mhz processor in a very small form factor - less than one kilogram, maybe even 850g".

"It will be the lightest notebook we have ever made," he said.

Fujitsu-Siemens will also launch a Transmeta-based notebook in Japan in November, but Reilly said the specification would probably be different from the European models.

"European regulations are more strict, so that is why products tend to be launched first in Japan. But it will be based on the same sort of platform," he said.