[virtmach] Re: Transmeta Crusoe

[Manoj Plakal]

Magnus Christensson wrote (Thu, Feb 03, 2000 at 06:10:43PM +0100) :
> Manoj> 	I can see Transmeta supplying tools (but not
> Manoj> 	publicly sold) to OS vendors who want to port
> Manoj> 	their x86 OSes to run on Crusoe without problems.
> Manoj> 
> Manoj> 	End users will never see the native ISA of Crusoe,	
> Manoj> 	all they see is they are running unmodified x86 apps
> Manoj> 	with no apparent access to the underlying hardware.
> Manoj> 	Why would Transmeta sell a debugger to an end-user?
> 
> Because a fast system level debugger (in this case for the X86) has
> many uses, including OS tuning and device driver development.

	Right, so Transmeta might give their development
	tools to OS vendors and other people who
	write device drivers. 

	But do you think they will actually sell the software
	on the open market? I think it will be much more
	restricted than that. Transmeta is probably more interested
	in selling hardware and providing some tools
	to certain vendors who want to port their software
	to Crusoe.

	As an analogy, it seems more like Intel giving IA-64 tools
	under NDA to Unix vendors and Microsoft and hardware
	people, rather than Metrowerks or Borland selling tools to
	the general programmer.

	It may be difficult for Joe Kernel Hacker or Jane Device
	Driver Writer to get hold of this software ... or so it	
	seems ...

	Manoj