Transmeta 700Mhz chip consumes only 1 Watt

At a demonstration of the new chip Tuesday night, it ran ``Quake 2,'' a PC game by id Software. At 700 megahertz, the chip consumed less than 1 watt, a level of power efficiency appropriate for a handheld device that needs to run on batteries for around four hours.

Even if Transmeta is creating a design for Microsoft, there is no guarantee that Transmeta would win that business, says Max Baron, an analyst at market researcher In-Stat, sponsor of the Spring Processor Forum where Transmeta revealed its plans. Baron expects that many companies would bid for the chance to design components for a Microsoft handheld.