In the midst of making war with Intel, Transmeta has tapped a new CEO. The former chip maker and now chip IP specialist has picked Lester Crudele as its new president and CEO. Crudele takes the helm on Feb 1, when current prez and CEO Arthur Swift steps down.

The CEO shift comes at an odd time.

Last October, Transmeta lobbed a patent infringement lawsuit at Intel, and Intel returned fire this month. Crudele, who has been a Transmeta board member for 18 months, inherits this unpleasant Intel baggage.

He also inherits Transmeta's new focus on semiconductor intellectual property, as opposed to making actual low-power chips.

"Transmeta has made significant progress in the last two years toward building its intellectual property licensing business," Crudele said. "I am excited to have the opportunity to lead a company with such a rich history of technical innovation and look forward to building on that legacy."

Transmeta has a long history of swapping CEOs. ®

• Chips are down for Transmeta (18 November 2008)
• Angry investor offers to buy Transmeta (1 February 2008)
• Intel pays $250m to end Transmeta patent fight (25 October 2007)
• AMD blasts $7.5m right into Transmeta (6 July 2007)
• Transmeta declares war on employment (2 April 2007)
• Transmeta streamlines 75 staff out the door (6 February 2007)
• Intel fires back at Transmeta (11 January 2007)
• AMD changes tack on developing-world PC (28 November 2006)
• SC06 Hippy geeks threaten supercomputing masculinity (17 November 2006)
• SC06 Tyan unit to push personal supercomputers (13 November 2006)
• Intel, AMD squeeze other x86 chip makers (1 November 2006)
• Transmeta accuses Intel of patent infringement (12 October 2006)
• Is that a VMware CTO and Transmeta CEO at your start-up? (25 August 2006)
• Exclusive Former Transmeta CEO goes at Intel with another low-power chip (19 August 2006)
• Computex 2006 AMD to re-badge Transmeta CPUs (6 June 2006)
• Transmeta begins second year working for Sony (10 April 2006)