Item Subject: cc:Mail Text
No, this is not a PowerPC thing, and the article does not mention Merced
explicitly.  But...

NEWS.COM reports on a recent patent award for Transmeta, the startup
where Linux Torvalds is a principal:

       "...sections of the patent (No. 5,832,205) discuss a chip that can
        translate Intel chip instructions into a more advanced format
        referred to as VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word)."
       ...
       "The chip is potentially very fast though there is no mention
        of speeds in the patent. It's a design 'that is susceptible to
        very high speeds,' [microprocessor patent consultant Richard]
        Belgard said."

The story is at
      < http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,28737,00.html >

--Glenn