Editing Transmeta (section)

=== Stealth start-up ===

Founded in 1995, Transmeta began as a [[stealth startup|stealth start-up]]. The company was largely successful in hiding its ambitions until its official company launch on January 19, 2000.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://investor.transmeta.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=29602 |title=Transmeta Corporation – Transmeta Breaks the Silence, Unveils Smart Processor to Revolutionize Mobile Internet Computing |publisher=Investor.transmeta.com |access-date=November 13, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317185038/http://investor.transmeta.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=29602 |archive-date=March 17, 2012 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> Over 2000 [[non-disclosure agreement]]s (NDAs) were signed during the stealth period.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/technology/2000/0204/tech.internet.html |title=TIME Magazine – Asia Edition – March 31, 2008 Vol. 171, No. 12 |publisher=Asiaweek.com |date=May 9, 2011 |access-date=November 13, 2011}}</ref> Throughout Transmeta's first few years, little was known about exactly what it would be offering. Its web site went online in mid 1997 and for approximately two and a half years displayed nothing but the text, "This web page is not yet here."

On November 12, 1999, a cryptic comment in the HTML appeared:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2501&cid=1530191 |title=Transmeta Details Continue to Unravel |publisher=Hardware.slashdot.org |access-date=November 13, 2011}}</ref>
<blockquote>
Yes, there is a secret message, and this is it: Transmeta's policy has been to remain silent about its plans until it had something to demonstrate to the world. On January 19, 2000, Transmeta is going to announce and demonstrate what Crusoe processors can do. Simultaneously, all of the details will go up on this Web site for everyone on the Internet to see. Crusoe will be cool hardware and software for mobile applications. Crusoe will be unconventional, which is why we wanted to let you know in advance to come look at the entire Web site in January, so that you can get the full story and have access to all of the real details as soon as they are available.
</blockquote>

Transmeta attempted to staff the company in secret although speculation online was not uncommon.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/1752 |title=A New CPU? – Shacknews – PC Games, PlayStation, Xbox 360 and Wii video game news, previews and downloads |date=September 23, 1999 |publisher=Shacknews |access-date=November 13, 2011}}</ref> Information gradually came out of the company suggesting it was working on a [[very long instruction word]] (VLIW) design that translated x86 code into its own native VLIW code. <!--As [[Intel Corporation|Intel]]'s then-forthcoming [[Itanium|"Merced"]] processor was also a VLIW design which could translate x86 code, speculation arose suggesting that Transmeta's product could have supercomputer-level processing power while actually being cheaper to manufacture than any offering by Intel, [[AMD]] or [[Cyrix]].{{Citation needed|date=July 2007}}-->