'Code-Morphing' Helps VLIW Processor Tackle The x86 Processor

摘要

Even as some suppliers of x86-compatible processors have withdrawn from the market, another company has developed new approaches that promise benefits that existing x86 suppliers can't deliver. That's the promise of a novel very-long instruction word (VLIW) processor architecture—dubbed Crusoe— and its companion code-morphing (CM) software recently unveiled by Transmeta Corp., Santa Clara, Calif. The combination of the CM software and the VLIW processor will appear to the host system as if an x86 processor was executing the instruction stream from a standard operating system (DOS, Win-dows, Linux, etc.).