The question is, though, will punters prefer a CULV laptop with a comparable screen to an Ion 2 netbook but a better, dual-core processor? The integrated graphics in a typical CULV machine like, say, Acer's 11.6in Aspire 1810TZ may prove to be less powerful than the Ion 2 GPU, but they can do HD. It will be interesting to see whether vendors can find a price band between standard Atom 2.0 netbooks and Pentium Dual-Core CULV notebooks.
Nvidia claims Ion 2 makes for a major performance boost
Or will Ion 2 machines be even more expensive still?
Well, Ion 2 encompasses two forms: one, aimed at 10in netbooks, incorporates eight of Nvidia's Cuda unified shader cores, while the second, designed for 12in netbooks and desktop machines, has 16 cores.
In addition to the Ion 2 chip that notebook makers can have installed on their netbooks' motherboards - and the same board, albeit Ion-less, can be used in Intel-only models - Nvidia has a PCI Express add-in card for desktop design where it makes sense to slot the part in that way rather than bond the GPU onto the motherboard. The card has DVI and HDMI outputs. ®
Asus' Eee 1201PN: bigger screen, better GPU - 16 cores not eight
Nvidia drives in second-gen Ion
COMMENTS
yes it will run a home theatre
the outgoing ion1 platform plays blu ray discs flawlessly in the ION330HT boxes.
plug in a tv tuner at the back and windows 7 gives you sky+ style pvr,
awesome, been using one for a month :)
can't wait for ION2 it will be even faster
managed to play race driver grid on ion1 btw :)
I'd say yes
Have an Atom 330 Ion platform at the moment (for another purpose) that I've put Windows on to see how it performs. Windows experience scores were http://i47.tinypic.com/ap7a6t.png
That was with 512MB ram in it as it was all I could find lying around at the time, explaining the low score for that (and also 2D graphics). Should be more than enough for an HTPC, and the new one even more so.
The day Nvidia, MSFT and Intel killed the Netbook
For the time being there is no Optimus support in Xorg. There isn't one in sight either. It will require nvidia releasing specs (which it has not) and probably rearchitecting some major portions of the xorg infra to allow multiple drivers to be loaded at the same time and graphic primitives dispatched to the correct driver as needed.
These are netbooks that is not making my purchasing budget any time soon. In fact with Windows 7 full edition mandatory inclusion these are not likely to make any purchasing budget any time soon. It will be around 400£. Neither cheap, nor small any more.
Time to buy some more hinges for my old faithful HP NC4000. It looks like it will outlast its 5 years expected lifetime by at least a few more years.
VDPAU
The GeForce 9300M supports VDPAU, so a decent Linux distro should be one mean beast on these platforms. And provide a big saving on the cost of upgrading from Win7 Starter to Win7 HP (circa £85 it seems).
I just hope the manufacturer's ship with a well done Linux install or are swift to refund the Microsoft Tax. And ditching that Win7 baggage would allow them to get much closer the the desired price point.
Cue the MS shills.
Hmmm....
I have a Lenovo R61 laptop with Intel GM965 integrated graphics, considering the drivers seem to be the same for most Intel graphics chips and that I have a spare PCI-Express Mini slot inside (currently running a new Broadcom Crystal HD card) could I get an NVidia Ion2 in there and will Windows 7 work with it?
A question for NVidia that burns I think! I would love to retrofit real performance graphics to this three year old laptop! It would very much still rock if I could do that.
