In the scant weeks since the release of startup Transmeta Corp.'s Crusoe processors, the groundbreaking chips have generated quite a lot of chatter.

San Jose, Calif.-based Phoenix Technologies Ltd. announced that it spent the past two years secretly working with Transmeta to develop BIOS software that can be used to build reference designs for computers based on the chips.

The BIOS allows devices using the new processors to boot up and control attached devices like hard-drives, display screens and input devices. Its availability so soon after the chips' release means that manufacturers can start producing devices based on the chip.

"Phoenix is the unquestioned leader in mobile BIOS and power management," said Jim Chapman, vice-president of sales and marketing for Transmeta, in a statement. One of the Crusoe's most lauded features is it's low power consumption.

Al Sisto, president and CEO of Phoenix, concurs. "Phoenix understands the power and performance requirements of the Internet mobile market. Our unique position with silicon providers, operating system vendors, battery manufacturers and PC developers make us a natural partner in assisting Transmeta with introducing its processor into the Internet mobile marketplace."

Manufacturers such as Saratoga, Calif.-based Diamond Multimedia have already announced plans to use the company's chips in a variety of new and powerful devices. Diamond's plan is for a Web access pad based around the Crusoe, taking advantage of the chip's small size and low power consumption. Diamond's Web pad product is planned to be built around the TM3120 chip.

Although Diamond has historically focused on analogue modems and graphics cards, it has been showing a trend towards producing consumer devices with its line of Rio portable MP3 players.

Diamond's Web devices are expected to cost between US$500 and US$1,000 when they hit the shelves in the second quarter of 2000.

Meanwhile, Transmeta has unveiled its first products, a line of four high-speed processors aimed at mobile computing platforms. The products include 500 MHz and 700 MHz versions of the company's TM5400 Crusoe processor. These are aimed at the high-end notebook market and 333 MHz and 400 MHz versions of the slightly less powerful TM3120 processor, which is aimed at Internet access terminals and other connected devices. The 700 MHz TM5400, the fastest mobile chip announced, is not expected to ship until mid-year.

The chips use a 128-bit Very Long Instruction Word architecture, as opposed to the traditional x86 architecture. But compatibility with x86 operating systems is achieved via an off-chip software-based translation engine, allowing Transmeta solutions to do things like pre-optimize code blocks before passing them on to the core of the processor.

The chips are also designed especially for the low-power consumption requirements that mobile computing requires. The chip not only runs significantly cooler than current high-speed notebook chips, thus removing the need for a power-sucking cooling fan, but it also uses something that Transmeta refers to as "LongRun power management." This monitors how busy the processor is, and how much of its available processing power it really needs.

The company also unveiled a small code-size version of Linux, dubbed Mobile Linux, taking advantage of the input of Transmeta employee Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux operating system.

Transmeta is currently working in partnership with IBM, and IBM has set up a special unit dedicated to Transmeta solutions.

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