In return, NEC has taken a small equity stake in Transmeta, the companies said.
NEC's license covers the 90-, 65-, and 45-nanometer manufacturing nodes, or the period from 2004 through 2010, based on estimates from the International Roadmap For Semiconductors(Opens in a new window). NEC, among the top manufacturers of LCDs, ASICs, and application-specific processors, is expected to use the LongRun2 technology to enhance the battery life of those products even further, Transmeta executives said.
Transmeta's LongRun2 technology works to minimize leakage current, which is expected to become more commonplace as chip manufacturers shrink their linewidths ever smaller. The leakage current wastes power, draining the battery used by mobile devices.
"The meat of the announcement is that Transmeta, NEC and everyone are trying to make smaller, faster, cheaper microprocessors," said Greg Rose, director of marketing at Transmeta. "We're all driving the geometries of the chips down, and as gate lengths get smaller the leakage actually grows."
LongRun2 technology will make its first appearance as part of the Transmeta Efficeon processor during the second half of 2004, according to a Transmeta spokesman.
The LongRun2 technology is a confidential mix of power-management circuits used in conjunction with an intimate knowledge of the semiconductor process technology involved. The third component of LongRun2 is software which can tweak the operating voltage to reduce power even further. In October, when Transmeta introduced the technology, the company said that an Efficeon using LongRun2 technology would dissipate 70 times less power than the same chip without the technology.
Rose declined to divulge specifics of the LongRun2 architecture license, including the different types of circuitry LongRun2 could be used to optimize. In an ASIC, for example, a designer may mix standard logic, embedded memory, and even some reconfigurable elements. Transmeta's first-generation LongRun technology, used in notebook PCs powered by Transmeta Crusoe chips, has required BIOS and operating-system support to function, two components which are sometimes eliminated in mobile devices.
Embedded processors are also designed for low power, which may mitigate some of the LongRun2's advantage. But any reduction in power may offer NEC an advantage, one analyst pointed out.
"It depends on the application, I think," said Linley Gwennap, principal analyst with the Linley Group. "In low power applications, you may be talking about going from 2 watts to 1 watt. We're not talking about a lot of power, but it may be enough to stick another chip in there – take a cell phone, for example. You might be able to add a camera to it."
Representatives from NEC were unavailable for comment.