On Nov. 7 in New York, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates will attempt to validate a new category of portable PCs called tablets. Its success could mean life or death for the promising but struggling chip company Transmeta.
Transmeta develops very low-power microprocessors that rely on software rather than hardware to perform many of their functions. Hewlett-Packard and others have signed on to use Transmeta's chips in tablet PCs, and Microsoft has developed software specifically for the device.
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