[5] Transmeta engineers built a PC-compatible board so they could run Windows applications on their chips. The board is held at left by Doug Laird, vice president of product development.

Transmeta's hardware and software teams are housed in two buildings, about 1 km apart in an office park. Designing chips with so many software functions requires interdisciplinary teams, so Transmeta's fleet of secondhand bicycles gets a lot of use in cross-campus commutes--even by chief executive officer David Ditzel [right].

PHOTOS: DAVID TEORGE/BLACKSTAR

IEEE Spectrum May 2000 Volume 37 Number 5