NVIDIA yesterday unveiled the ION 2, the successor to the netbook platform that has captured the hearts of enthusiasts with outstanding designs like the HP Mini 311 and the Lenovo S12.
“The new ION graphics processing unit (GPU) vastly outperforms basic netbook graphics by delivering rich HD media in games, movies, and Internet-based video,” NVIDIA said in a press release. “Unlike netbooks with Intel integrated graphics, ION netbooks have the power to play amazing HD video smoothly from sites like YouTube and support popular PC games like World of Warcraft.”
The new ION platform is a dedicated GPU, the 40nm GeForce GT218, which attaches to the NM10 Express chipset in Intel’s new Pine Trail Atom platform by way of PCI Express. This architecture differs from the original ION product which married core logic and a GPU into a single chipset.
The GT218 comes in two flavors: 8 CUDA cores (6W TDP) for 10″ netbooks and 16 CUDA cores (13W TDP) for 12″ netbooks and nettops. This power consumption is similar to what is consumed by the Atom and its chipset in these respective product classes.
While the addition of the ION 2 appears to be a doubling of the netbook’s power consumption, a new NVIDIA technology known as Optimus ensures that is not the case. Optimus automatically switches between the Atom’s on-die GPU and the ION 2’s GT218 chip as applications dictate, meaning the system is never consuming more power than is absolutely necessary to get the job done. The entire process of switching GPUs on the fly is completely transparent to the end user.
Designs based on the new ION 2 will start with the Acer Aspire 532G in April. Specs for the new netbook include a Hyper-Threaded 1.66GHz Atom N450 (Pineview); a 10.1?, LED-backlit display; 2GB DDR2 RAM; 512MB dedicated GPU memory; a projected 9 hours of battery life; 1″ thickness and a weight of just one kilo.
In all, NVIDIA says, more than 30 netbook and nettop designs based on the ION 2 will launch in time for the summer of 2010.
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