NVIDIA ION
ION Manufacturer Nvidia
NVIDIA ION is a system/motherboard platform that includes NVIDIA's GeForce 9400M (MCP79) GPU and Intel's Atom on a Pico-ITXe motherboard designed for netbook and nettop devices. In February 2009, Microsoft certified the upcoming ION-based PCs as Vista-capable.[1] The small form factor ION-based PCs are expected to be released in the summer of 2009, starting at $299.99.
It was originally believed to be unlikely that ION systems would be manufactured en masse and were thus unlikely to pose a serious rival to Intel's 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.[2] 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 bearing in mind the low-cost leanings of the nettop and netbook market.[3] However, Intel later denied those claims, and a spokesperson for Intel said Intel sells Atom as a stand-alone processor.[4]
NVIDIA has announced that it will also release the ION platform for the VIA Nano processor in Q4 2009.[5]
Acer have annouced the release of the AspireRevo which is the first model to be built on the Ion.
A company called Zotac also launched 2 Nvidia Ion based motherboards. They plan to launch a total of 4.
