NVidia Ion

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What NVIDIA has done with the ION is to create a platform that combines a GeForce 9400M chipset with an Intel Atom processor, all placed on a Pico-ITX PCB. If you aren't familiar with the form factor, that doesn't say much, but imagine you can actually fit the entire PC inside one of your pockets as it's the surface size of roughly a HDD, or even two pears.

With ION, NVIDIA developed something what I like to call CPU compute assistance. A chip that will help the CPU offload some of the specialized tasks. And you can guess it already .. it's an integrated GPU motherboard chipset, the GF9400 chipset. The advantage here is by using such a chipset the environment (PC) will instantly gain modern features and the sheer influence of a GeForce graphics processor.

Think about it, take the average netbook and ask yourself what are the most common limitations ? Yes, high-definition and even DVD playback, games, overall performance. So that's where NVIDIA will jump in to try and make that experience better. It's called NVIDIA Ion, which is the basis for a number of products it could be used in, and it's creepy small.

ION will be a low cost CPU assisted solution that will allow this industry on very short notice to have netbooks with full HD playback quality, in full 7.1 HD audio. A solution that even supports CUDA and therefore some simple PhysX function, but since it's CUDA compatible, it'll also allow encoding of video. A platform that supports Gigabit Ethernet, dual-link DVI (high resolutions monitors), acceleration in Photoshop CS4 and heck .. you can even play a couple of games or make a mini HTPC out of it, really interesting.

Ace, an all in one package thats absolutely tiny!!


http://www.guru3d.com/article/nvidia-ion-platform-review-preview/








From NVidia:

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Experience the world’s smallest, premium, visual computing PC.
The NVIDIA ION platform, the combination of NVIDIA GeForce 9400 and Intel’s Atom CPU, transforms traditional Atom-based PC designs into a premium PC experience. Discover affordable new designs that are small in size but big in performance.

Key Benefits

* Premium Windows experience
* Premium DirectX 10 graphics with advanced digital display connectivity
* NVIDIA CUDA technology unlocks the power of the GPU to accelerate the most demanding system processing tasks
* Premium 1080p HD video with true-fidelity 7.1 audio

http://www.nvidia.com/object/sff_ion.html

Heres a comparison of a normal ATX motherboard compared to Ion.



Where can i get one?????

great info mate, bet it costs the earth or are the PC makers gonna rip us off or quake in their shoes...?