Transmeta Announces Expansion of LongRun2 Technologies License Rights for Toshiba
Wednesday September 13, 9:00 am ET
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 13, 2006--Transmeta Corporation (Nasdaq:TMTA - News), the leader in efficient computing technologies, today announced that Toshiba Corporation, one of Japan's largest electronics companies, has exercised an option to expand the initial scope of Toshiba's license to Transmeta's LongRun2(TM) Technologies. In February 2006, Toshiba licensed Transmeta's LongRun2 Technologies for reducing power, controlling transistor leakage and improving the operating characteristics of semiconductor devices for use in selected application areas in the 90 nanometer through 22 nanometer CMOS process generations. Toshiba's exercise of this option will allow Toshiba to utilize Transmeta's LongRun2 Technologies for all semiconductor devices that it may manufacture in the 90 nanometer through 22 nanometer CMOS process generations.
Transmeta's LongRun2 Technologies provide semiconductor manufacturers and chip designers with innovative ways to reduce power consumption and reduce variations between chips. Among the many techniques developed by Transmeta is a unique new approach to controlling transistor leakage that is simpler to implement and requires less area than prior approaches. By controlling transistor leakage with LongRun2 techniques, chips can often be operated at lower power, and yield can often be improved for chips with tight power budgets. LongRun2 can help adjust leakage dynamically to provide both for the lowest standby power and for adjustment of performance and power during chip operation. In May 2006, Transmeta presented test results on a LongRun2-enabled Efficeon microprocessor at a technical symposium showing that its LongRun2 technologies were able to reduce the worst case power by 2.6x, or to increase the worst case maximum frequency at a given power by 1.6x.
"We are very pleased that Toshiba has opted to expand their potential field of use of our LongRun2 technologies to any semiconductor devices that they might manufacture through and including their 22 nanometer process technology," said Arthur L. Swift, president and CEO of Transmeta. "Managing chip power and transistor leakage is a critical issue for the semiconductor industry, and we are pleased to see Toshiba's license expansion as a sign of increasing confidence in the value of Transmeta's LongRun2 Technologies."
