Transmeta (Semiconductor) (TMTA)

[weaksidehelp]

Confirmation LR2 is in new S3 Graphics card

S3 tackles entry-level, mainstream graphics market in North America

http://www.tgdaily.com/2005/11/03/via_announces_s20_series/


. . . The selling point of the S20 series however is not really performance, but much more performance per watt, a discipline that typically is not important in the enthusiast desktop graphics space. Via says that the GPU will consume 11.6 watts, which is less than half of Nvidia's mobile 6600 part - according to S3. To our knowledge, Nvidia's mobile 6600 consumes 18 watts - still substantially more than the S27. The entry-level S25 chip, which runs at "more than" 600 MHz, consumes less than 10 watts, the company said. One secret of the low power consumption of the graphics processor comes from the integration of Transmeta' Longrun 2 technology that S3 was able to access through a partnership with Fujitsu. Longrun, originally developed for the Crusoe processor, has been licensed by Fujitsu.

An interesting issue is whether TMTA engineers were involved in the design of the LR2-enabled new card for S3, or did Fujitsu engineers do the work as part of the foundry's turn key services. If the latter, LR2 tech might spread real fast through the IC world. In that light, it is interesting that Fujitsu is already considering another 300mm foundry when the Mie Foundry is only fully operational for a couple of months now.

Anyone else think it interesting that Mark Kent is speaking at an investors conference the day after the 3Q CC. Wonder if the earnings date was moved up to allow Mark to discuss future guidance at the conference.

regards, wsh