Nvidia Ion is a system/motherboard platform that includes Nvidia's GeForce 9400M (MCP79) chipset, DDR3-1066 or DDR2-800 SDRAM, and the Intel Atom processor. The original reference platform was based on a Pico-ITXe motherboard designed for netbook and nettop devices. In February 2009, Microsoft certified the Ion-based platform as Vista-capable. The small form factor Ion-based computers were released in the early summer of 2009, with the recommended retail price starting at $299.99. Ion systems are DirectX 10.0 and OpenGL 3.2 capable. This allows playback of full 1080p high-definition video with true-fidelity 7.1 surround sound audio output with VDPAU or the Third Generation PureVideo HD feature. Ion systems can also use CUDA (Nvidia's General-Purpose Computing on Graphics Processing Units technology), as well as OpenCL. ION LE based systems share the same basic hardware as ION but lack Vista and Direct X 10 support.
It was originally believed to be unlikely that Ion systems would ever enter into mass production and were thus unlikely to pose a serious rival to Intel's own chipsets for the Atom platform, due to Intel's unwillingness to supply Atom processors separate from the 945GSE and 945GC chipsets with which the CPUs are usually supplied. While manufacturers could still buy an Atom-plus-chipset package and remove the CPU for use on a Ion board, it hardly seems likely given the costs involved, especially given the low-cost leanings of the nettop and netbook market. However, Intel later denied those claims, and a spokesperson for Intel said Intel sells Atom as a stand-alone processor.
NVIDIA has announced that it will also release the Ion platform for the VIA Nano processor some time in Q4 2009.
For full-sized laptops, the Ion platform promises 5x faster graphics and video transcoding with an 80% lower CPU cost when compared to the Intel GM45 graphics. For netbooks and nettops 10x faster graphics and video transcoding when compared to the Intel 945GSE graphics. For all-in-ones, the Ion platform is capable of displaying resolutions up to 2560 × 1600.
Acer have announced the release of their Aspire Revo which is the first[citation needed] model available for retail purchase to be built on the Ion platform.
ZOTAC International has launched four NVIDIA Ion based motherboards in Mini-ITX form factor. An Ion system based on their IONITX A-U dual-core Atom 330 motherboard draws 30 watts total from the AC line cord, including hard disk and DVD drives, while playing and upscaling a DVD.
It was originally believed to be unlikely that Ion systems would ever enter into mass production and were thus unlikely to pose a serious rival to Intel's own chipsets for the Atom platform, due to Intel's unwillingness to supply Atom processors separate from the 945GSE and 945GC chipsets with which the CPUs are usually supplied. While manufacturers could still buy an Atom-plus-chipset package and remove the CPU for use on a Ion board, it hardly seems likely given the costs involved, especially given the low-cost leanings of the nettop and netbook market. However, Intel later denied those claims, and a spokesperson for Intel said Intel sells Atom as a stand-alone processor.
NVIDIA has announced that it will also release the Ion platform for the VIA Nano processor some time in Q4 2009.
For full-sized laptops, the Ion platform promises 5x faster graphics and video transcoding with an 80% lower CPU cost when compared to the Intel GM45 graphics. For netbooks and nettops 10x faster graphics and video transcoding when compared to the Intel 945GSE graphics. For all-in-ones, the Ion platform is capable of displaying resolutions up to 2560 × 1600.
Acer have announced the release of their Aspire Revo which is the first[citation needed] model available for retail purchase to be built on the Ion platform.
ZOTAC International has launched four NVIDIA Ion based motherboards in Mini-ITX form factor. An Ion system based on their IONITX A-U dual-core Atom 330 motherboard draws 30 watts total from the AC line cord, including hard disk and DVD drives, while playing and upscaling a DVD.
Nvidia Platform
