Editing Transmeta (section)

===Native compilation===
In principle, it should be possible to optimize x86 code to favor [[Code Morphing Software]], or even for compilers to target the native [[VLIW]] architecture directly. However, writing in 2003, [[Linus Torvalds]] apparently dismissed these approaches as unrealistic:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=105606848227636&w=2 |title=Linus Torvalds writing in the linux-kernel mailing list |publisher=Marc.info |date=June 20, 2003 |access-date=November 13, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=105612366806449&w=2 |title=Linus Torvalds writing in the linux-kernel mailing list |publisher=Marc.info |date=June 20, 2003 |access-date=November 13, 2011}}</ref>

{{quote|The native crusoe code – even if it was documented and available – is not very conducive to general-purpose OS stuff. It has no notion of memory protection, and there's no MMU for code accesses, so things like kernel modules simply wouldn't work.

The translations are usually better than statically compiled native code (because the whole CPU is designed for speculation, and the static compilers don't know how to do that), and thus going to native mode is not necessarily a performance improvement.

So no, it wouldn't really benefit from it, not to mention that it's not even an option since Transmeta has never released enough details to do it anyway. Largely for simple security concerns – if you start giving interfaces for mucking around with the "microcode", you could do some really nasty things.

[...I meant...] "you cannot do that". And we won't even tell the details of how you cannot do that.

In fact, even inside transmeta you cannot do that, without having a specially blessed version of the flash that allows upgrades. If you ever see a machine with a prominent notice saying "CMS upgraded to development version", then that's a hint that it's a machine that TMTA developers could change.|Linus Torvalds|''linux-kernel mailing list''}}

Subsequent [[reverse engineering]], published in 2004, clarifies some details of the native VLIW architecture and associated instruction set, and suggests that there are fundamental limitations that preclude porting an operating system such as Linux to it.<ref name="RealWorldTechnologiesCrusoeExposedI">{{cite web|author=Real World Technologies |url=http://www.realworldtech.com/crusoe-intro/ |title=Real World Technologies – Crusoe Exposed: Reverse Engineering the Transmeta TM5xxx Architecture I |publisher=Realworldtech.com |access-date=November 13, 2011}}</ref><ref name="RealWorldTechnologiesCrusoeExposedII">{{cite web|author=Real World Technologies |url=http://www.realworldtech.com/crusoe-exposed/ |title=Real World Technologies – Crusoe Exposed: Reverse Engineering the Transmeta TM5xxx Architecture II |publisher=Realworldtech.com |date=January 27, 2004 |access-date=November 13, 2011}}</ref>

The same work also compares Transmeta's patented technology with prior art published and in some cases patented by IBM, and suggests that some claims might not stand detailed scrutiny.<ref name="RealWorldTechnologiesCrusoeExposedII" />