Alexander Wolfe, editor of TechWeb's Semiconductor Business News, writes . . .

The mystery surrounding the much-anticipated processor launch by Transmeta will finally unravel next Wednesday (January 19th). Industry sources said they believe the company will unveil an embedded-class VLIW processor, called “Crusoe,” which will be showcased in a handheld Web pad or similar downsized browser equipped… with an embedded version of the Linux operating system.

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Ken Popovich, of PC Week Online adds . . .

The wraps are about to come off the Crusoe, a new microprocessor developed by the highly secretive Transmeta Corp., a Silicon Valley startup that employs Linux creator Linus Torvalds and has financial backing from Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen. Among the processor's key features, sources say, will be its energy-saving technology, which Transmeta founder David Ditzel advocated while a top designer at Sun Microsystems Inc. The Crusoe's unique processor instruction set will be packaged with, but not integrated into, the chip. So, rather than being an Intel chip clone, sources said, the Crusoe is designed to emulate Intel Corp.'s x86 architecture.

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