Crusoe RoadMap

Crusoe Road Map

The Crusoe processor currently coming onto the market in Sony, Fujitsu, and NEC notebooks is the TM5600, and in the web arena, the TM3400. A look to the future for Crusoe shows two distinct areas of development, the TM5x00 series and the TM3x00 series.

TM5x00 series Crusoe processors are the heavy weights and are designed to run in conjunction with the Microsoft OS. These Crusoe processors can be found in sub-notebooks, and their variants, and contain better power management then their cousins.

The TM3x00 series are destined to be running x86 instructions in the Linux (or Mobile Linux) environment. These Crusoe processors are meant for the Web Pad or Internet Appliance market, an area which has only just begun to develop.

Crusoe Road Map:

	TM3x00 series (Web Pads)				TM5x00 Series (Notebooks)
	TM3120	TM3200	TM3300	TM3400	TM5400	TM5600	TM5800
Maximum Speed Range (Mhz)	400	333-400	400	366-500	500-700	533-800	600-1000
Level 1 Cache (data)	96KB	32Kb	64Kb	64Kb	64Kb	64Kb	64Kb
Level 1 Cache (instructional)	N/A	64Kb	64Kb	64Kb	64Kb	64Kb	64Kb
Level 2 Cache	None	None	None	256Kb	256Kb	512Kb	512Kb-1Mb
PCI bus interface	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SDR SDRAM controller	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
DDR SDRAM controller	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Power management	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
LongRun power management	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
VLIW instruction length	128 Bits	128 Bits	128 Bits	128 Bits	128 Bits	128 Bits	128 Bits
Die technology	.22 micron	.22 micron	.18 micron	.18 micron	.18 micron	.18 micron	.13 micron
Available	Cancelled	Cancelled	2001	2001	2000	2000	2001

The processor getting the most publicity at the moment is the TM5600, which has debuted in the Sony Vaio C1VN, Fujitsu Biblo Loox S & T, NEC LaVie MX, and will soon pop-up in a Hitachi notebook. Gateway and AOL are still in development of a WebPad using the TM5600.

It will be interesting to see how the TM5800 compares when Transmeta introduce this processor with the potential to reach 1.0Ghz.

At the moment the WebPad roadmap for the TM3x00 series looks like it has reached its zenith. With the TM3400 currently in both the FIC Aqua, and FrontPath's ProGear, it's implementation is a year ahead of the projected timeframe.

News that the TM3200 has been shelved means unless Transmeta has another TM3x00 iteration up their sleeves this is the final Crusoe destined for this market segment at the moment, or for the foreseeable future (you decide...). Odd, as this is perhaps the area where Transmeta can foster the highest growth. What could be better than a largely untapped market? What is your opinion? Post it here!