Transmeta Gilds China’s ‘Lilly’ Notebook

Chipmaker Transmeta Wednesday said its TM5800 Crusoe is the brain behind a new lightweight notebook being marketed to women in China.

The Santa Clara-based company partnered with China’s second largest notebook supplier, Tsinghua Unisplendour Group on the “Lilly” notebook.

Weighing just 3.5 lbs, the compact laptop was launched Wednesday in Beijing and will be marketed to women in China as an attractive alternative to traditional larger, heavier notebooks.

The Lilly features an 800 MHz Crusoe TM5800 processor includes a 20 gigabyte hard drive, 128 megabytes of memory, a 12.1″ XGA screen and an expected battery life up to four hours. The notebook is available in China and priced at USD$1,200.

“China is one of the world’s most important markets and Transmeta is committed to expanding the availability of Crusoe-based computers by working with leading companies like the Tsinghua Unisplendour Group,” said Transmeta president and CEO Dr. Matthew R. Perry. “Transmeta’s design win for this notebook increases the exposure in China to the benefits of Crusoe-based computing.”

The company is also expected to break new ground in the 12- to 14-inch notebook sector with its upcoming processor now codenamed “Astro.” Transmeta told internetnews.com the 1GHz chip should be shipping in notebooks by the third quarter of this year.

Transmeta has also been on a roll with its embedded Crusoe processors. Tuesday, the company announced new embedded security features in its TM5800 that prepare it for Microsoft’s upcoming Palladium release. The company is also currently marketing a write-once-read-many version of its embedded low-power Crusoe processor.