Transmeta's Efficeon headed to the living room

Even though there've been some rumors floating around that Transmeta was going to get out of chip manufacturing and get into contract chip-design, they didn't come to CES empty handed. Yesterday they unveiled their new DEC (Digital Entertainment Center) reference design based on their Efficeon processors as an alternative to Media Center/HTPCs riding the high-watt high-heat big-box bandwagon (Microsoft was very impressed). The low-profile design evidences a partnership with ATI as it includes their RADEON 9550 graphics unit, as well as multiple PCI ports for hi-def tuners, 10 USB ports, as well as the standard hi-def A/V connects. This could provide really stiff competition in the living room since Transmeta will certainly have an easier time grabbing hold of consumers' interests with their quiet, smaller media PCs being more than a little easier to wedge in that already crowded home-entertainment center.