NVIDIA Ion Platform Energizes Atom Into A Premium PC Experience

[btarunr]

NVIDIA is poised to energize the PC market by transforming Atom PCs into a premium experience found today in higher priced laptops and desktops. NVIDIA will supercharge the fastest-growing segments of the PC market - netbooks, small form factor and all-in-one PCs - by enabling these products to play rich media and popular games in high definition. At the same time, the Ion Platform will create new and exciting premium PCs that fit in the palm of your hand.

The formula is simple: Combine the highly rated GeForce 9400 GPU found in new desktop and notebook PCs with the Intel Atom CPU. This combination (code-named Ion Platform) enables the smallest premium PC experience available today, making it ideal for the exploding category of mini-notebooks and compact PCs.



Unlike existing chipsets paired with the Atom CPU, the GeForce 9400 GPU delivers up to ten times the graphics performance, plays full-spec 1080p high definition video, supports the full Windows Vista user interface and the upcoming Windows 7, and runs popular PC games such as Call of Duty 4. The GeForce 9400 GPU does all of this in about one-half of the space of today's Atom CPU-based solutions with minimal affect on battery life.

"NVIDIA's Ion Platform transforms Atom-based PCs into capable mainstream gaming platforms," said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. "Epic is excited about the growth potential offered by these new affordable premium PCs."

"Spore looks and runs great with netbook and nettop PCs featuring GeForce GPUs and Atom CPUs," said Lucy Bradshaw, executive producer, Spore. "Gamers will be impressed with the Ion platform's power and portability."

"Elemental's Badaboom Media Converter accelerates video transcoding by tapping into the power of the massively parallel NVIDIA GeForce GPU and CUDA technology," said Sam Blackman, chief executive officer of Elemental Technologies. "We've seen that the 16-core GeForce 9400 GPU transcodes video up to 10X faster than the Intel Atom CPU alone. Regardless of what CPU you have, for the best video transcoding performance, an NVIDIA GPU is essential."

"Netbooks have exploded onto to the scene, and we are excited that netbook users can now experience full Blu-Ray playback in the smallest form factors with a GeForce 9400 and Intel Atom CPU with the CyberLink PowerDVD player," said Alice H. Chang, CEO of CyberLink Corp.

About the GeForce 9400 GPU:
The NVIDIA GeForce 9400, recently introduced with the Apple MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air, is a single chip, high performance, highly integrated design that is ideal for notebooks and smaller computing devices. It features 16 processing cores that deliver a whopping 52 GFLOPs of processing power, making it the most powerful integrated GPU on the market today. GeForce 9400 delivers up to 5 times faster graphics performance than Intel Centrino 2, adds legendary GeForce application compatibility, and boosts photo and video editing productivity for popular applications like Adobe Photoshop CS4, Adobe Premier CS4, Cyberlink PowerDirector 8, Badaboom, and more. It also includes NVIDIA PureVideo HD technology which enables Atom-based PCs to play full-spec 1080p movies for the first time.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

schweet .... atom cpu's look even more attractive now.

 

[Mistral]

So that's the PC that will fit inside my computOr?

the GeForce 9400 GPU delivers up to ten times the graphics performance, plays full-spec 1080p high definition video, supports the full Windows Vista user interface and the upcoming Windows 7, and runs popular PC games such as Call of Duty 4

I agree the GF9400 can do playable COD4, but what about the Atom CPU?

 

[saber862]

So that's the PC that will fit inside my computOr?


I agree the GF9400 can do playable COD4, but what about the Atom CPU?

Thats what I have been asking myself. I know the the 9400 is a decent GPU, and I would be happy to get a netbook with one of those in it over the "standard" GMA 950. But your statement holds true, what about the Atom, now I don't know much about the Atom, but from the little I have been told, its not very good for more powerful apps/games, or for having more than one program running, not to mention the lack of threading and single core.

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

new atoms are dual core and HT

 

[saber862]

new atoms are dual core and HT

I was under the understanding that intel was not allowing companies to put the dual core atoms in netbooks.

As stated in, http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10047071-64.html

"This is not for Netbooks," an Intel spokesperson cautioned.

 

[newtekie1]

I believe the dual core Atom would be able to handle some low end gaming. The single core with HT should be able to handle some of the older FPS games, I wouldn't run Crysis on one, but some of the older ones would probably run just fine. The dual core should do even better.

I was under the understanding that intel was not allowing companies to put the dual core atoms in netbooks.

As stated in, http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10047071-64.html

One sentance below that:

computer makers will do with the chip as they please

Intel is allowing companies to do whatever they want.

 

[Smith_X]

Will Nvidia make it by themselves or sold as a reference board/chipset like their own GPU?

 

[JoJoe]

The Asus N10's have an Atom and a 9300m in them. People have to overclock the Atom 'cause it bottlenecks even that gpu. When OCed to 2.0GHz, I hear it peforms decently though.

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

which atom?

 

[Steevo]

Thin, network boot clients. Mmmmm, network administration dreams........

 

[JoJoe]

which atom?

N270 1.6Ghz

 

[mlee49]

Sweet, I'm glad to see that this will be the true Pocket PC.

There are already so may applications that this is great for!

 

[Wile E]

I might actually buy one of these if they ship with the dual core Atoms. It would be great for an HTPC/netbox.

 

[saber862]

Well with talking and searching for more things about the Ion, I found this, and it answers some of my questions. Laptop mag talked with Nvidia Product Manager Dave Ragones. The link is the Q&A, http://blog.laptopmag.com/nvidia-talks-ion

 

[Formula350]

Last I heard, Intel wasn't allowing nV to make a chipset or the like for the Atom. So has this changed now?