The secret turned out to be the Crusoe microchip, which consumes very little power; promises an end to laptops hot enough to fry an egg; and makes possible a host of new portable, post-PC devices. "There are an enormous number of these new Internet handheld devices that people have wanted to build. You've seen them in science fiction shows. The electronics just weren't up to it until Crusoe." CEO David Ditzel believes the chip's Code Morphing software gives his company an edge because it emulates x86 instructions in software rather than less flexible hardware. "It gives us some fundamental business advantages. It makes our silicon chip a lot simpler than other chips out there." Enough of an advantage to dethrone Intel? "I don't think so. Everyone would love to write that story. But it's just not the case. What we see Transmeta doing is extending the reach of the x86 architecture." How did the company keep its secret for over four years? "Every week the employees got a lecture about secrecy. Second, all of the employees got stock. They all knew how much the stock could be worth, but we'd say to them, 'Look, it's only going to be worth that if you keep your mouth shut.' "