I feel obliged to report that Transmeta finally announced what they’ve been working on in secret for all these years — a low power microprocessor that will emulate Intel x86 chips in software. The one they’re releasing now will power handhelds, and one released later this year will attempt to supplant Intel chips in laptops. Linus Torvalds has been working on a mobile version of Linux to run on the chips. The most interesting thing about all this is the level of exposure Transmeta is getting thanks to their obsession with total secrecy until now. Another brilliant marketing move … people were dying to see the announcement, even though their product offerings are useful but not thrilling. I defer to EE Times for stories about silicon, here’s a link to their article.