Gateway-AOL
Internet Appliances To Be Powered By Transmeta's Crusoe Processor
SAN
DIEGO and SANTA CLARA, Calif. (May 30, 2000) - Gateway (NYSE: GTW) has selected
the Transmeta Crusoe smart processor to power the first of its new line of
network-ready Internet Appliances
“Crusoe and Mobile Linux will help support AOL’s and Gateway’s strategy of offering consumers easy-to-use, convenient, reliable Internet access and superior Internet-based content, said Peter Ashkin, Gateway senior vice president and chief technology officer. “Crusoe is a great processor choice to help us to deliver the kind of new Internet services that consumers will value in this new mark etplace. Mobile Linux will enable our wireless IAs to deliver the performance around the house that our customers will expect.”
Gateway, which also made a strategic investment in Transmeta in April 2000, selected the Transmeta Crusoe processor for inclusion in the family of IAs it plans to launch with AOL based on several criteria: high performance; lower temperature operation, which permits smaller packaging; and its low-power requirements, which dramatically increases battery life.
“AOL and Gateway have the best overall strategy in the emerging Internet Appliance space and we are thrilled to have a strategic relationship with them to develop Crusoe and Mobile Linux-based products,” said David Ditzel, CEO of Transmeta Corp. “At our launch in January, we promised Crusoe would usher in a new world of mobility. With their innovative approach to Internet Appliances for the home, Gateway and AOL are playing a significant role in moving that vision forward.”
On April 5, AOL and Gateway unveiled a groundbreaking family of specialized Internet appliances featuring "Instant AOL" that will deliver AOL's content, features and services to consumers in every room of their homes.
Advancing the AOL Anywhere strategy, these new devices are small, lightweight tools for accessing the Internet in a variety of ways during the course of a consumer's daily life.
These appliances will automatically launch the "Instant AOL" service, a customized version of AOL’s convenient and easy-to-use software. It also will offer popular AOL content and features like e-mail and news as well as personalized services for busy households.
These next-generation appliances will utilize the Netscape Gecko browser technology. Gecko, Netscape's smaller, faster and more potent browser engine technology, is a key component of the AOL Anywhere strategy and is designed to power Internet devices across a range of platforms and enable Web developers to create more compelling Internet-based content and applications. The first of these devices will utilize Transmeta’s Mobile Linux operating system, a more compact, power-managed version of the robust and reliable Linux operating system.
The companies will market these devices through their complementary sales and distribution channels, which include the AOL service with more than 22 million members; and the nearly one million people a day who connect with Gateway through its phone, Web sales channels, and Gateway's innovative Gateway Country retail locations nationwide. These new devices are another component of the companies' strategic relationship that was announced in October 1999.