Acer Reveals the World's First NVIDIA ION-based AspireRevo PC

[malware]

Today Acer and NVIDIA bring Acer AspireRevo - the world's first NVIDIA ION based PC and the world's first small PC in its own category. With the size of a book, the AspireRevo is a fully capable desktop with advanced graphics from NVIDIA's ION GPU and impressive multimedia features, such as support for 1080p HD video with true-fidelity 7.1 audio and CUDA accelerated graphics. The AspireRevo is boasting a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom 230 processor, up to 4 GB of DDR2 RAM, up to 250 GB of HDD space, a 4-in-1 card reader, HDMI / VGA outputs, gigabit Ethernet, six USB 2.0 ports, audio in / out, and a license copy of Windows Vista Home Premium or Vista Basic.

NVIDIA and Acer reshaped the PC landscape today by setting a new standard for small PCs with the introduction of the world's first NVIDIA ION -based PC, the Acer AspireRevo.

No larger than a typical hardcover book, the AspireRevo is a fully capable desktop with advanced graphics and impressive multimedia features. Equipped with NVIDIA ION graphics, the system can handle a wide variety of computing needs including high definition video, gaming, sharing digital photos, surfing the web, and other tasks consumers expect from full-size systems.

The AspireRevo represents a sharp break from 20 years of big, power hungry, and expensive PCs by delivering a full PC experience in a small, energy efficient, and affordable system. NVIDIA ION graphics make this possible with performance that is 5-10 times faster than traditional PCs with integrated graphics.

"The AspireRevo is small and quiet enough to go anywhere, yet big enough to handle all the needs of your digital lifestyle," said Gianpiero Morbello, corporate vice president of marketing for Acer. "It's perfectly suited for the living room, because NVIDIA ION provides a brilliant graphics experience with digital photos, watching video, and playing family-friendly games."

"The Acer AspireRevo with our new NVIDIA ION GPU is so small and powerful it's unbelievable," said Dan Vivoli, senior vice president of marketing at NVIDIA. "Watch Blu-ray movies1 and HD movie trailers, or clean up jerky, dim cell phone videos for internet streaming. This is the perfect PC for today's consumers."

The NVIDIA ION graphics processor in the AspireRevo supports:

• Windows Vista Home Premium
• Outstanding 1080p HD video with true-fidelity 7.1 audio
• Popular games including Spore, Call of Duty 4, and Sim City 5
• DirectX 10 graphics with advanced digital display connectivity
• Accelerated video enhancement and transcoding using NVIDIA CUDA technology

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[magibeg]

It almost looks like a really big modem.

 

[Studabaker]

One step closer to the 'whole PC in a tiny box' reality.

 

[tkpenalty]

One step closer to the 'whole PC in a tiny box' reality.

It is. Its fast enough to play crysis I am so getting that ASAP.

ACER has won

 

[Yukikaze]

Now we need one of those with the Atom 330....

 

[lemonadesoda]

Agreed. The Atom 230 is a real bottleneck here... Intel need to work hard on a LV 330.

 

[tkpenalty]

Agreed. The Atom 230 is a real bottleneck here... Intel need to work hard on a LV 330.

An atom would not bottleneck a 9300GS...

 

[Error 404]

An atom would not bottleneck a 9300GS...

Ah, but the Ion platform is a 9400!
I would have one of these hooked up to a 12 inch touchscreen LCD and a laser keyboard next to my bed, along with a wireless internet connection. That would be cool. I would feel like I'm living in the future!

 

[lemonadesoda]

An atom would not bottleneck a 9300GS...

What ARE you talking about? The Atom is the weakest link in the chain. A 330 offers P4 performance levels... which is *just* about acceptable for encoding tasks, etc. A 230 is half that performance, and IMO, is really pushing what is acceptable

If you are using this for MS Office and internet only, then yes, a 230 is sufficient. But 230 solutions already exist. If we want a high performance Atom based system a 230 just doesnt cut the mustard.

IMO the Atom range is a complete mess. Intel now have so many derivatives out. With x64, without, with VT, without, with HT, without, with 2GB address range, with just 1GB.

Intel need a Dual Core Atom, with x64, with VT, with HT, with 4GB. Then and only then is the Atom a credible CPU for out-of-laptop designs.

 

[tkpenalty]

What ARE you talking about? The Atom is the weakest link in the chain. A 330 offers P4 performance levels... which is *just* about acceptable for encoding tasks, etc. A 230 is half that performance, and IMO, is really pushing what is acceptable

If you are using this for MS Office and internet only, then yes, a 230 is sufficient. But 230 solutions already exist. If we want a high performance Atom based system a 230 just doesnt cut the mustard.

IMO the Atom range is a complete mess. Intel now have so many derivatives out. With x64, without, with VT, without, with HT, without, with 2GB address range, with just 1GB.

Intel need a Dual Core Atom, with x64, with VT, with HT, with 4GB. Then and only then is the Atom a credible CPU for out-of-laptop designs.

Take a chill pill mate. You're using the word bottleneck out of context, bottleneck means something that will limit the performance of another factor. In this case a 9300GS/9400 isn't really something that needs a 330 to perform to the fullest of its potential.

You're overexaggerating and you have obviously never used a system with an even slower atom. If you didn't realise the atom does have hyper threading. I actually can actually game properly without eyecandy even on an intel IGP based N270 atom EEEPC S101. 1GB Adress range? FUD.

The Intel atom was never meant to be a high performance processor. In this case its just Nvidia (more like acer) giving the atom based platform WAY more capabilities which it previously didnt have, for a low price.

Not everything caters for the enthusiast mate, there are more people biting the short straw than those who arent. Its not hard for me to think of relatives and friends who would benifit from something like this. Think of the people who can't afford a large desktop tower, even with the most rudimentary specifications. Or the people who don't have the space, or the people who just want a small system (like me).

Thus, if they put a Celeron ULV 330 into it, guess what happens? The power usage goes up several magnitudes, and we'd need more than one phase on the motherboard, + cooling + the fact that we cant rely on a small power brick and need to have a proper PSU. In short it just multiplies the price of the ION platform.

To simplify it: Atom = cheap, as low power consumption as possible. With HT dual core's performance increase versus its power efficiency makes it pointless for a dual core variant.

Others = different story.

Nobody is telling you to buy an atom based system anyway. Oh look your laptop ran out of power 3 hours ealier than mine. Tough luck.

EDIT: Why virtualisation technology??/!?!?!?!

 

[lemonadesoda]

Bottleneck = performance of system is limited due to a weak/underperforming part of the process. I dont understand why you are forcing a connection between this comment and the performance of the GPU. It's a rather narrow definition of bottleneck to say it only applies to the question of the CPU being fast enough to feed the GPU data. Try here.

The idea of this device is a desktop substitute or media PC (their marketing words). People will use this for internet, watching videos, ripping CDs, encoding, all sorts of stuff. A 230, esp. a Z530 would struggle (or rather, would not zip through) ripping and encoding tasks. Any discount (non Atom) Intel/AMD PC bought today would put the 230 to shame. Whereas a 330 has a fighting chance. The 330 is also needed for watching many videos. While the new GPU chipset has hardware acceleration, many video formats still require a lot of CPU horsepower depending on encoding format and driver compatibility.

Laptop battery? LOL. This is a plugged in system! Who cares if the CPU uses 3W on average instead of 2W on average? And when it IS doing some major work, if it uses 8W instead of 4W? It isnt going to be getting hot, nor putting anything onto your utility bills. The monitor or TV you are conected to will consume a lot more.

You're overexaggerating and you have obviously never used a system with an even slower atom. If you didn't realise the atom does have hyper threading

Do your homework next time. You sound foolish when it is clear you didnt do yours. Try searching the forums for my posts and benchmarks of single and dual core Atoms

1GB adress range. FUD

Actually, try the Z500, Z510, Z520...The Z range was originally designed for 1GB address space only. And was so at launch. However, Intel have now changed the specification for their current higher Z models exactly due to market criticism.

To simplify it: Atom = cheap, as low power consumption as possible

True. But then use the Z series. No need for the 230 if lowest power is your aim. And cheap? The 330 is only $10 more than the $27 230 and will deliver twice the performance. A cheap $10 worth spending to double performance.

Watch this space for Intel's launch of new Atoms next week to address a lot of the performance and feature issues.

If you disagree with my statements, I would prefer an objective, factual correction next time, rather than sarcasic and "you obviously dont know nothing" type comments.

You might be interested to know that Shuttle has discontinued the 230 based X27 and only manufactures the 330 based X27D. Go figure The NVIDIA ION chipset in the X27D would really improve it too. Let's hope they make the switch from the hot Intel chipset.

 

[3870x2]

An atom would not bottleneck a 9300GS...

It wouldn't bottleneck, but it would scale very high with a dual core atom.

It wouldn't bottleneck, but it would scale very high with a dual core atom.

Also, I believe that the 1.6 dual core atom outperforms the pentium 4?

 

[h3llb3nd4]

Imagine the heat generated when playing Crysis...

 

[lemonadesoda]

I believe that the 1.6 dual core atom outperforms the pentium 4?

The 1.6 330 (dual core) will *just* beat a P4 on multithreaded apps, but is about half the speed for single threaded. See http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=1193276&postcount=2

 

[3870x2]

The 1.6 330 (dual core) will *just* beat a P4 on multithreaded apps, but is about half the speed for single threaded. See http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=1193276&postcount=2

should have noted I meant clock 4 clock.


1./ The Atom 330 can nearly keep up with the P4EE on multithreaded tasks.
2./ The performance improvement of HT is much much better on 330 than on P4. We all know how lame HT was on P4, but on 330 and i7 HT really does add value. HT adds about 1.41x speed up on Atom, but only 1.04x on P4EE.
the world is moving toward multithreaded apps, might as well assume multithreaded tasks.


Either way, im very excited to see what this platform, and future atom products, can bring to the table.

 

[lemonadesoda]

^^ some great insights there! You clearly know what I'm talking about!

 

[h3llb3nd4]

as everyone should when they post...sadly I dont

 

[MikeX]

seriously cant wait for Nettop version of this to come out, obviously the atom n280 with 9400m

 

[Easy Rhino]

that thing is awesome. no wifi tho. i would defin strap a 7 inch" touchscreen LCD to it and turn on the vista desktop keyboard. hrm....now it needs GPS and it would be the ultimate outdoorsmans computer.

 

[A Cheese Danish]

that thing is awesome. no wifi tho. i would defin strap a 7 inch" touchscreen LCD to it and turn on the vista desktop keyboard. hrm....now it needs GPS and it would be the ultimate outdoorsmans computer.

+1 on that! It is a cute little computer lol looks like something i would use as a mousepad or a coaster.

 

[IcrushitI]

Price

So if this is the size of a book, whats the price going to be $99.99.

 

[adrianx]

for my memories...

the ion platform is the cause of little discution from intel and nvidia....

also this is not first ION platform

this was (are in the shop) http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2034940772+1725045261&Configurator=&Subcategory=772&description=&Ntk=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=