Gateway, AOL tap Transmeta for 'Net applications

Upstart processor vendor Transmeta Tuesday said that Gateway 2000 will use its Crusoe chips and Mobile Linux operating system in forthcoming Internet appliances the hardware vendor is developing with AOL.

Gateway and AOL will use the Crusoe processors and Mobile Linux in appliances aimed at providing consumers with easy access to the Internet, Transmeta said in a statement.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The first Gateway/AOL 'Net appliances are scheduled to ship late this year, the companies said when they unveiled the joint effort at the Internet World trade show held in Los Angeles in April.

Transmeta, which has no manufacturing facilities of its own, has yet to ship Crusoe processors in volume, although Hsinchu, Taiwan contract manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. earlier this month said it was ready to start volume production of the chips whenever Transmeta gives the word.

AOL and Gateway were among a group of investors that injected $88 million into the formerly secretive chip developer in April.

Three major Taiwan-based contract manufacturers of notebook PCs were also among the investors. One of them, First International Computer, quietly showed off a prototype of a notebook powered by a Crusoe processor at the CeBIT trade show held in Hanover, Germany, in late February.

Transmeta, in Santa Clara, can be reached at 408-919-3000 or at www.transmeta.com/. AOL, in Dulles, Va., is at 703-448-8700 or at www.aol.com/. Gateway, in North Sioux City, S.D., is at www.gateway.com/.