BE DOPE NEWS (BDN) Following yesterday's story on rumors of a BeBox II, the biggest question on everyone's mind was what chips would be inside - PPC or x86?

New information obtained on condition of anonymity might have an answer to that question: neither.

According to highly placed sources, Be, Inc. CEO Jean-Louis Gassée and other high-level Be officials have been seen in frequent meetings at VM Labs, creators of the NUON chip.

While VM Labs officials did not respond to email inquiries by press time, their web site has a lot to say about the NUON:

"The NUON technology will add unprecedented programmable processing power to digital consumer electronics devices, providing an advanced interactive software platform for the living room. In addition to unsurpassed interactivity, the architecture provides the raw horsepower to decode digital video and audio, while delivering advanced trick modes...This highly parallel and scaleable processor is capable of executing in excess of 1.5 billion instructions per second. The first products are expected to be available in 1999."

Add to the mix that Linux inventor Linus Torvalds has been seen frequently traversing the Be, Inc. campus at odd hours lately. Torvalds is currently playing a big part in Transmeta, Silicon Valley's favorite supersecret start-up, rumored to be working on some sort of next-generation superchip.

Be, Inc.'s Product Marketing Manager Michael Alderete would not comment on this story, replying simply "Be, Inc. has a policy of not commenting on rumors."

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