Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2000 01:17:57 -0600 From: chris@tourneyland.com To: questions@freebsd.org Cc: hou-freebsd@houfug.org Subject: FreeBSD & Transmeta - something we should care about? Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000308011757.00873d70@mail.9netave.net>
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Hi all, I was just at TransMeta's web site (www.transmeta.com). Neat stuff. I'd describe it here but I'd probably mess it up, so I'll limit my half-fried description to this: TransMeta is making CPUs that emulate Intel x86 CPUs, by creating their own completely-unrelated-to-Intel CPU (called "Crusoe") with @1/4 the transistors of a P3, and then putting some Intel-to-Crusoe translation logic in ROM (they call this 'Morphing Software', aka 'Virtual Machine', 'Emulator', and a million other names). The idea is that since a Crusoe CPU has many many fewer transistors than its Intel counterpart, it will consume less power, and therefore be the CPU of choice for manufacturers of mobile devices (which include laptops as well as smaller things), because a Transmeta powered device would have many times the battery life, etc etc. Anyhoo, as I understand it, a pretty high profile member of Transmeta is Linus Torvalds. Nothing wrong with that. On their Web site, they say things like "The TM5400 is compatible with the complete range of x86-based operating systems. This includes all versions of Linux, as well as Microsoft's popular Windows 98, Windows NT, and Windows 2000 operating systems." and "Transmeta expects that Linux will be the primary operating system for mobile Internet devices." At first, upon reading the first quote, my only reaction was a knee-jerk "What about FreeBSD"? But the more I think about this, the more I think about this. From a technical standpoint, is Linux really a better candidate than FreeBSD? Which has the smaller kernel, or rather, which can more easily have a smaller kernel created that's appropriate for internet devices? Is it a wash? Why wouldn't it be? And less technically: why would TransMeta say something like "Transmeta expects that Linux will be the primary operating system for mobile Internet devices"? That seems like an odd expectation. Even assuming the top OS for such a device wouldn't be a Windows or Palm variant (a big if), why would it be Linux? Is there any reason for such a claim other than Linus Torvalds' presence in Transmeta? (again, why would Linux be good but not FreeBSD?) Should they change 'Transmeta expects' to 'Transmeta would prefer'? Though if they're a hardware company why care, or why even mention the issue? I guess some of this stuff speaks to various Linux vs. FreeBSD wars, including a Should There Be a Linux vs FreeBSD war. Maybe it's meaningless. It's just something that popped into my head at this hour, and I thought someone might have a reaction. - Chris To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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