quickquick startstart THE BEGINNING OF THE MAGAZINE, WHERE ARTICLES ARE SMALLTHE BEGINNING OF THE MAGAZINE, WHERE ARTICLES ARE SMALL
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W
ireless provider Verizon recently
announced it will open its network
to third-party devices and applications.
The company plans to release technical
specs in early 2008 and approve prod-
ucts for use on its CDMA network later in
the year. While some news stories stated
that Verizon would join Google’s Open
Handset Alliance and drop its suit against
the FCC’s open access rules, this is not
the case. Jim Gerace, VP of corporate
communications for Verizon Wireless,
explained that while the company is open
to Android working on its network, it has
not joined the Open Handset Alliance.
Gerace went on to say that the company
does not question the philosophy of open
access but believes the market, not regu-
lation, should drive the industry.
Verizon Opens Its Network
Wireless provider to allow ‘any app, any device’
W
e’ve long recommended that power users adopt the open-source
browser Firefox. Its stability, extensibility, and security make it the
browser of choice for discerning web heads. Unfortunately, a botched secu-
rity update and an as-yet-unfi xed memory-leak issue are beginning to make
us question our recommendation.
It started with the 2.0.0.10 security patch, which fi xed a cross-site script-
ing error that allowed people to access other people’s Gmail address books.
Sounds reasonable. Unfortunately, the patch had an error that prevented
dynamic rendering of bitmaps. Oops.
That situation has coincided
with the browser’s continued
memory-management woes.
The current version of Firefox
can absorb upwards of 400MB
of memory, and according to
Mozilla’s Infrastructuralist Vlad
Vukicevic, Firefox 2 users are out
of luck. “All effort on memory
usage and other improvements
is focused on Firefox 3.... The
goal is to have Firefox memory
usage remain stable throughout
a user’s surfi ng session,” he
explained. Firefox 3 is scheduled
to launch in mid-2008.
Firefox Flubs It?
The open-source titan experiences its first major
gaffes. Will it recover?
I
n the June 2005 issue, my column stopped just short
of being an obituary for Transmeta, the feisty com-
pany that challenged Intel in 2000 with a new family
of low-power x86-compatible processors. Transmeta
was nearly dead in 2005, clobbered by Intel’s low-
power Pentium M.
Now Transmeta has a second life—and not as an
avatar in an online virtual world. This rebirth is for real.
In 2006, Transmeta sued Intel in federal court, alleging
that Intel had infringed on 11 of Transmeta’s patents
on microprocessor-related technology. A few months
ago, Intel agreed to settle out of court. Intel is paying
Transmeta $150 million up front and another $
million a year for five years, for a total of $250 million.
This sudden infusion of cash rescues Transmeta
from its deathbed. Now debt free with a guaranteed
revenue stream for five years, Transmeta has a second
chance. What will the company do with the windfall?
Naturally, Transmeta is reluctant to discuss future
plans. And frankly, I don’t think the few remaining
executives have completely decided what to do yet.
Even by Silicon Valley standards, $250 million is big
money that creates many opportunities. But one thing
is clear: Transmeta won’t repeat past mistakes by
again challenging Intel (or AMD) in the x86 micro-
processor market. Transmeta’s Crusoe and Efficeon
processors have reached the end of their lives, despite
the company’s survival.
Instead, Transmeta is licensing its power-man-
agement technology to other companies that make
processors. Right now, Transmeta’s most valuable
technology is LongRun2, which dynamically var-
ies the threshold voltage of transistors to improve
their power/performance efficiency. Lowering
the threshold voltage allows transistors to switch
more quickly, but they leak more current. Raising
the threshold voltage reduces leakage but also
reduces the switching speed. LongRun2 can vary
these parameters hundreds of times per second
throughout a chip in response to changing work-
loads. Transmeta’s remaining engineers—about
40 people, including contractors—are working to
improve LongRun2 and develop additional technol-
ogy suitable for licensing.
Transmeta is eager to license LongRun2 and
the earlier LongRun technology to any processor
company, including Intel and AMD. (Last summer,
AMD invested $7.5 million in Transmeta.) So even
though Transmeta’s innovative power-manage-
ment technology couldn’t save the company’s own
processors, it may appear in future processors from
Transmeta’s former competitors.
Tom Halfhill was formerly a senior editor for Byte magazine
and is now an analyst for Microprocessor Report.
Transmeta’s
Rebirth
FAST FORWARD
TOM
HALFHILL
If you run Firefox for just a few
hours, it can absorb as much
as 400MB of memory.