Hitachi to sell Crusoe-based wireless Net device

TOKYO: Japanese electronics maker Hitachi Ltd. said on Friday it would begin

selling its new wireless Internet-surfing device based on the Crusoe

microprocessor in Japan on December 11.

The device, FLORA-ie 55mi, runs on Transmeta Corp's battery-efficient Crusoe

microprocessor, and allows users to browse the Internet with the stroke of a

pen.

The news comes a week after major Japanese computer maker NEC Corp said it

would recall hundreds of notebook computers that contain a different, flawed

version of the Crusoe chip.

A Hitachi spokeswoman said the company hoped to sell 20,000 units of the

device each year, as demand grows on a spread of online stock trading and

Internet banking.

The product, priced at 136,800 yen ($1,237), can run continuously for seven

hours.

Transmeta's Crusoe chip, first introduced in January, uses elaborate software

instructions rather than hardware to perform certain functions, cutting power

consumption and providing longer battery life.

(C) Reuters Limited 2000.