11-09-2017, 12:49 PM
Mobile computing has been the buzzword for quite some time. Mobile computing devices like laptops, webslates and portable PCs are becoming commonplace today. The heart of every PC, whether a desktop or mobile PC is the microprocessor. Several microprocessors are available in the market for desktop PCs from companies such as Intel, AMD, Cyrix, etc. The mobile computing market has never had a microprocessor designed specifically for it. Microprocessors used in mobile PCs are optimized versions of the desktop PC microprocessor. Mobile computing makes very different demands from processors, but so far, x86 mobile platforms have simply conformed to the same old processors originally designed for desktops. The processors consume a lot of energy, and they get very hot. When you're on the move, a processor with a lot of energy means you have to pay a price: you run out of power before you finish, you run slower and you lose performance, or you run through the airport with extra kilos of batteries. A hot processor also needs fans to cool it; making the resulting mobile computer bigger, clunkier and noisy. A newly designed microprocessor with low power consumption will continue to be rejected by the market if performance is poor. Therefore, any attempt in this regard must have an adequate balance of "performance-power" to ensure commercial success. A newly designed microprocessor must be fully x86-compatible, ie it must run x86 applications just like conventional x86 microprocessors, since most of the currently available software is designed to run on the x86 platform.
Crusoe is the new microprocessor that has been specially designed for the mobile computing market. It has been designed after considering the limitations mentioned above. This microprocessor was developed by a small Silicon Valley launch company called Transmeta Corp. after five years of secret work with a $ 100 million spend. In this concept, the x86 architecture is an ill-defined amoeba that contains features such as segmentation, ASCII arithmetic, variable length instructions, and so on. The amoeba explained how a traditional microprocessor was, in its design, divided into hardware and software.
So Crusoe was conceptualized as a hybrid microprocessor which is that it has a piece of software and a piece of hardware with the software layer that surrounds the hardware unit. The role of software is to act as an emulator to translate x86 binaries into native code at runtime. Crusoe is a 128-bit microprocessor manufactured using the CMOS process. The design of the chip is based on a technique called VLIW to ensure simplicity of design and high performance. In addition to this, it also uses Transmeta's two patented technologies, namely Code Morphing Software and Longrun Power Management. It is a highly integrated processor available in different versions for different market segments.
Crusoe is the new microprocessor that has been specially designed for the mobile computing market. It has been designed after considering the limitations mentioned above. This microprocessor was developed by a small Silicon Valley launch company called Transmeta Corp. after five years of secret work with a $ 100 million spend. In this concept, the x86 architecture is an ill-defined amoeba that contains features such as segmentation, ASCII arithmetic, variable length instructions, and so on. The amoeba explained how a traditional microprocessor was, in its design, divided into hardware and software.
So Crusoe was conceptualized as a hybrid microprocessor which is that it has a piece of software and a piece of hardware with the software layer that surrounds the hardware unit. The role of software is to act as an emulator to translate x86 binaries into native code at runtime. Crusoe is a 128-bit microprocessor manufactured using the CMOS process. The design of the chip is based on a technique called VLIW to ensure simplicity of design and high performance. In addition to this, it also uses Transmeta's two patented technologies, namely Code Morphing Software and Longrun Power Management. It is a highly integrated processor available in different versions for different market segments.