Abstract

Transmeta's family of Crusoe microprocessors was targeted at the notebook and Internet appliance segments of the mobile Internet computer market and a range of embedded applications. Crusoe had been specifically designed to solve the problems of mobile and Internet computing in ways other processors could not. But even before Crusoe hit store shelves in 2000, critics were sceptical about its performance. Tests suggested that the chip sacrificed speed for longer battery life-at a price that might not be worth it. On 20 June, 2001, Transmeta shocked the market with the news that second quarter sales were 'drastically off course'. Could Transmeta successfully relaunch Crusoe?

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

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Keywords

Transmeta, Opteron, Intel, AMD, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Microprocessors, Lighter computing, Mobile computing, Centrino, X86 processors, Code morphing, Long battery, Semiconductors, Pentium