Master of the "streamline," Transmeta today culled about 40 per cent of its workforce.

Seventy-five employees - most of them in engineering - have been let go, as a cost savings measure. In addition, the chip IP licensing house plans to shutdown sales and support offices in Japan and Taiwan. Transmeta will also can another 25 to 55 people over the next two quarters, depending on how a relationship with Microsoft goes.

Once all of these moves have been completed, Transmeta expects to save between $17m and $23m per year. It will take between $11m and $14m in charges as a result of the restructuring.

Transmeta has been in a near constant streamlining process since it first launched as a low-power x86 chip maker. Disappointing sales, production issues and oh so fierce competition from Intel blunted any edge Transmeta once claimed in the low-power market.

Over the past couple of years, the company has moved to license its chip knowhow to other companies.

Transmeta and Intel have filed recent lawsuits against each other. ®

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