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What happened to Transmeta, the last big dotcom IPO

(dfarq.homeip.net)
205 points onename | 2 comments | 12 Nov 25 09:01 UTC | HN request time: 0.552s | source
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jpmattia ◴[12 Nov 25 15:04 UTC] No.45901114[source]▶
> so IBM handled manufacturing of its first-generation CPUs.

I'm curious: Is there a consensus on which startup companies achieved success using IBM as a fab? or if not a consensus, I'd settle for anecdotes too.

My own company (which built 40G optical transponders) used them back in that era. While the tech was first rate, the pricing was something to behold.

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1. jecel ◴[12 Nov 25 20:10 UTC] No.45905756[source]▶
My own memory of the events (which might be very wrong) was that a new vice-president of IBM semiconductors decided to drop bulk CMOS and focus exclusively on SOI (Silicon On Insulator). That suddenly left Transmeta without chips to sell. They had to scramble to find a new supplier and design their next generation processor for it (since the Crusoe wasn't portable to any other fabs). They were able to launch their Efficeon on TSMC 130nm (with a later version on Fujitsu 90nm) but the gap in supply was far worse for a startup than it would have been for a big company.
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2. wmf ◴[12 Nov 25 22:26 UTC] No.45907732[source]▶
That doesn't make any sense. IBM is the last company that would shut down a fab with no warning, breaking a bunch of contracts.