great article. fun to see things like

> Transmeta usually steers the conversation toward performance on DES algorithms or MPEG loops, tasks that play into Crusoe's (and Efficeon's) strengths. 'MPEG loops' got a lot more important in the intervening years

transmeta was right. their approach was better, it should have won.

Interesting, I wonder if the non-deterministic behavior of Transmeta's processors makes it harder to perform cryptographic timing attacks on them. Anecdotally, I once owned a netbook that used one of these processors, a Vaio PCG-U3, but didn't notice any difference in speed when compared to other netbooks employing Atom processors, both were practically unusable even for basic activities.