From: Neill Newman <njnewm@essex.ac.uk> >> If full blown Windows, and Linux ran on StrongArm would this product >> still be as exciting? > >in my opinion, no ;).. but considering that the Crusoe has variable self >adjusting core voltage, self adjusting clock speeds up to 750 Mhz, and a >20 miliwatts sleep mode ;).. that sounds impressive to me ;) nope. For example, Windows NT used to run on Intel, MIPS, and Alpha, but MIPS was dropped several years ago and Alpha is barely hanging in there. The real problem is hardware peripherals. USB may change this picture in the near future for external peripherals, but internal peripherals need to be compatible. Who wants to buy a custom Harddisk Interface, just because it's more power saving? Nobody. You have to be able to interface with standard ISA, PCI busses, RAM, and other internal peripherals, and even that's not a guarantee that you might succeed - strongarm does have pcmcia, but that's not an economical expansion path. The real Crusoe win is the Intel compatability. Remember how painful it was just to recompile 8 bit to 16 bit under Windows? How long did that take? How much effort is needed to do all of this porting? a hell of a lot. So... Crusoe looks promising, but the specs have yet to be reviewed, and actual products have yet to be announced. - Kevin
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