A complete Windows PC no larger than a thick diary, to look at the P-1000 coupled to its external CD-ROM drive gives you the same sense of disproportion that you get watching a small child walking a large dog. However if it ever turns up is conversation, its ultra-portable size probably won't be the key issue up for discussion. The P-1000 is one of the first sub-notebooks designed around Transmeta's low power x86 compatible, Crusoe CPU architecture.
Unlike conventional x86 instruction set architecture (ISA), Transmeta's design insulates the processor core from the operating system with a software layer that converts x86 instructions into the Crusoe CPU's native code -- VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word) instructions - in a process called code morphing. The code morphing software replaces power intensive hardware solutions that perform equivalent processes in conventional Pentium-like ISAs.
Theoretically, Transmeta's code morphing software offers numerous the advantages for computing devices but particularly mobile technology. The Crusoe ISA eliminates the necessity for over half the transistors required by conventional ISAs. Fewer transistors mean cooler CPU operating temperatures and lower power consumption. That gives mobile device manufacturers the chance to offer longer battery life or re-evaluate design barriers by using smaller lower capacity batteries.
The P-1000 is one of two ultra-portable examples of the Crusoe's implementation - the other is Sony's Vaio PictureBook C1VN, one of the few portable computers on the market with an in-built digital camera. The P-1000 occupies the same class as the PictureBook, both weighing in at around 1 kilogram and having very similar screen and chassis dimensions. The P-1000 differentiates itself by having boxier lines and styling, and it uses a marginally slower processor, the 533MHz Crusoe TM5400 as opposed to the 600MHz.
Where laptop is the desktop portable competitor the P-1000 is the laptop in miniature. Stripped of all excess ports it offers basic personal computing tasks for the mobile individual. For instance the unit's PCMCIA slot only accepts one type II card for for the sake of attaching of a DVD or CD-ROM unit. It has no external VGA or S-Video port or docking capabilities for presentations, but it does provide an internal modem RJ-45 port for basic Internet connectivity. If you want to attach anything else to the system you'll have to be content with a single USB port. That's the ultra-portable trade-off, but then the person who buys this machine probably lives out of a suitcase with little room for peripherals in it.
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