My Sony VAIO C1VN is one of the later revisions and has an unusual memory configuration
Posted by recomserv@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 26 comments
As I just found out, my Sony VAIO C1VN is one of the later revisions and has an unusual memory configuration: 128 MB onboard, with the expansion slot empty. That means I can install another 128 MB module and bring it up to 256 MB total.
Originally, this model shipped with 64 MB of onboard RAM, so the usual maximum was only 192 MB.
justdoubleclick@reddit
It’s a cool cpu too. Those CPUs by transmeta introduced some interesting predictive features that were later incorporated into mainstream cpus.
MrKrueger666@reddit
Even more interesting: it could be any CPU type you wanted to. It emulates whatever instructionset it is instructed to. Most commonly it emulates X86, but it could just as well act like an ARM, PowerPC, Itanium, Sparc, etc with a firmware change.
wootybooty@reddit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmeta#Code_Morphing_Software
Literally one of the coolest CPU features, especially with all the competing architectures at the time. Any proofs of executing alternate ISA’s in the wild, or open source firmware projects? How crazy it would be to push a basic RISC-V core and see how it competes today 👀
I really wanna get my hands on another Fujitsu Lifebook with one of these…
0xKaishakunin@reddit
Nope, none. I worked very close with some fellow NetBSD developers on trying to use the Crusoe as a VAX cpu, but we never made any progress that was worth.
I even used some FPGA uni equipment and simulators for the project, because my prof for technical informatics was a FreeBSD developer who wanted to support us :-X
I got a ECS DeskNote with a Transmeta Crusoe GigaPro CPU 533 MHz. It was a DeskNote, so no battery, but they still might be available.
You can find the dmesg from back then here: https://archiv.net-tex.de/040129/home/rechner.html#daredhel
https://macdat.net/laptops/ecs/a900.php
GGigabiteM@reddit
The theory of Transmeta CPUs being able to emulate any architecture was never put into widespread practice. I'm sure it was probably tried in some engineering system at some point, but Transmeta was already bad enough at x86. They were slow, buggy and behind even VIA at the time.
I remember reading reviews of both generations of Transmeta CPUs. Performance was always mediocre, and the x86 emulation always had problems with stability due to bugs in the code morphing software and missing instructions that Transmeta never added. Here's one review I kept bookmarked:
https://www.vanshardware.com/reviews/2004/04/040405_efficeon/040405_efficeon.htm
Their last gasp, the Efficieon was a commercial failure. They were already irrelevant by 2003 with the Athlon 64 and dual core processors with x86_64. They probably could have jimmy rigged their code morphing software to do x86_64 with a severe performance penalty, but alas, we'll never know.
The only reason they survived until 2009 was patent trolling both AMD and Intel, then selling themselves to Novafora. That didn't work and they collapsed and vanished into history.
LopsidedLegs@reddit
I remember Vans. He had a beef with Toms, and went a bit of the rails towards the end.
PoolRamen@reddit
...but they sucked when compared to their contemporary intels. You just gave up too much for runtime (whcih eventually wasn't all that much of a boost anyway).
mallardtheduck@reddit
The Transmeta CPUs were certainly interesting, both for their architecture and the fact that they were one of the earliest attempts at a low-power x86 CPU (TDP below 10W, compared to over 20W for contemporary Intel Pentium M models), which lead to them being used in these sorts of "ultra-portable" systems.
Unfortunately, they were also dog slow compared to what Intel, AMD (and smaller players like VIA that were still around at the time) were selling. From my experience with a handful of devices (e.g. OQO Model 01+, Fujitsu Lifebooks) I'd say they really only achive 40-60% of the performance of a contemporary Intel/AMD chip at the same clock.
smuckola@reddit
It's amazing that it was ever conceived or released. Remember the blank website with the html comments? Even the PowerPC615 was killed by microsoft due to not wanting to maintain Windows NT for it.
Apple, IBM, and Motorola firmed an alliance to stop Microsoft, but which needed microsoft's permission to do it.
wootybooty@reddit
When I worked for an EMR company and found out in the mid-late 2000’s we still had two other mainstream x86 competitors besides AMD/Intel: Transmeta and VIA
At least, those were the main two I remember, and I thought everyone but AMD/Intel was out of the x86 game by 2000.
Accurate-Campaign821@reddit
Those CPUs were interesting for sure!
Accurate-Campaign821@reddit
You likely have 128MB ram with 16mb reserved for graphics?
MauroLXXXII@reddit
16MB is reserved for the code morphing software, is that right?
sangfoudre@reddit
Transmeta Crusoe here and you think memory config is unusual?
Jk man both are weird as fuck.
stq66@reddit
It had so much promise. And left so little
soogoush@reddit
I wish we could have this with modern internals. It's so beautiful
PiratesOfTheArctic@reddit
Oh that's beautiful, I'm very jealous
Sea-Escape-8109@reddit
back then seeing this at a store was fucking cool. but also very expensive, wasnt it around 2000$ or more?
fluteofski-@reddit
There’s a couple Chinese companies today that offer micro laptops.
I considered one as my travel unit.
Some field technicians liked them because they’re small and plenty good enough to run diagnostic tools. And fit in a toolbox.
wosmo@reddit
I got a modern mini-laptop for that reason - it'd go in a kit bag, it'd go in cargo pants, etc, and had real ethernet & rs232 still.
It died because the battery management is terrible going-on non-existent, so if it's not used the lipo will discharge until it's dead. Having to order a replacement battery from aliexpress every time I wanted to use it, really took away from the grab-bag convenience.
LaundryMan2008@reddit
You can with a lab power supply charge the battery slowly with a low current limit and lower voltage until it reaches the threshold to successfully be detected by the laptop’s BMS and be charged by the laptop charger
justdoubleclick@reddit
Yeah, I always wanted one back in the day. In the end I did get a second hand libretto which was cool too.
caddymac@reddit
It has a webcam as well?!?
Most mainstream/corporate laptops didn’t get those, even as an option, until we were in the i-series Intel chips.
NightmareJoker2@reddit
It could also be that the previous owner had fun with it and desoldered the old memory chips to install larger ones onto the motherboard.
I’m about to do this to a portable Wi-Fi router so I can install a more modern version of OpenWRT on it. 😀
FullstackSensei@reddit
AFAIK, the 3rd gen C1's came with 128MB base, expandable to 256MB. The 64MB base was in the 2nd Gen, the ones with Pentium 2.
yv-fr@reddit
That piece of computer is so cool