Transmeta (Semiconductor) (TMTA)

[weaksidehelp]

What is the MSFT Project?

During the cc and the presentation at Moors and Cabot, I was listening hard for clues as to what TMTA is doing for MSFT. I think some new info is available.

What we know: Apparently 35 or so TMTA engineers are working on the MSFT project, and will do so for a total of at least 9 months, and possibly longer. This would suggest a pretty significant project. Also, and I think for the first time, Art confirmed that there are no potential license revs involved in this deal.

What might be relevant: During the M&C presentation, Art made the comment that the company is addressing emerging market applications. No detail was provided, however. Also at M&C, Art and Mark both made it clear that the company is not providing NRE svcs unless such services are synergistic either on the LR2 side (leading to license revs) or on the product technology side (leading to product sales).

These data points may indicate that TMTA is working on a future MSFT product and not, eg, writing code to establish backward compatibility for XBox games. So, what product?

MSFT is very busy talking up entertainment centers, but it is unlikely they will get into the hardware side of this marketplace as it would put them in direct competition with their primary customers. So, ...

XBox360 Portable might be a possibility. A proprietary version of the Efficeon with LR2 might work in such a unit. MSFT must be planning a portable version of the new XBox to keep up with SNE.

Under $1000 ultra tablet PC/phone/PDA/GPS might be another. Bill Gates' public comments suggest that he wants to see this product in the marketplace, and may have decided why not sell the product as well as the software. This market is pretty open with no announced products by MSFT's big customers, eg Dell. Yet, this would be stepping on the toes of the computer OEMs, something MSFT has hesitated to do in the past.

Any other guesses?

wsh