Nvidia makes a strong showing at Computex

Darius Chang | Jun 02, 2009

A Tegra-based Netbook prototype.
(Credit: Ubergizmo)

With its major competitor in the graphics arena swallowed up by AMD, Nvidia had to do something drastic before it got edged out of the market. Sure enough, the video card manufacturer started dabbling in the Netbook arena last year with its Tegra and Ion platforms. Despite a slow start for the past year, at this week's Computex Taipei tradeshow, the Santa Clara company showcased a range of Ion-based machines, stealing some of Intel Pine Trail's thunder.

So what's the deal with the Nvidia Ion? Despite its low power consumption, this platform is able to render full-HD 1080p videos smoothly, a feat none of the current crop of Intel Atom Netbooks or Nettops have been able to replicate (save for units which hold power-guzzling discrete graphics cards). We sent our assistant editor to the booth to grab some photos, but in the meantime, you can check out a list of the new Ion-based machines and mainboard below:

Acer Desktop AspireRevo
AsRock Desktop Ion 330
Asus Motherboard C2N7A-I
Asus All-in-one Eee Top ET2002
Colorful Desktop iHTPC
ECS Desktop 7AT-3L
ECS All-in-one Morph-I
Flextronics All-in-one Cobra-2
Flextronics Desktop Dove-2
Funtwist Desktop Fion 330
ICD All-in-one Kitchen PC
Lenovo IdeaPad S12
MSI Desktop Windbox D200
MSI All-In-One Windtop AE2201
Pegatron Desktop IPP7A-CP
Pegatron All-In-One IPP7A-DF2
Pegatron Motherboard IPX7A-ION
TCL All-In-One Ruiyi 1010
Telcast TL-1000N
Weibu N10A
Zotac Motherboard Ion-ITX

The Nvidia Tegra chipset is actually designed for smartphones and not laptops. So, it can't run x86 operating systems such as Windows XP and Vista. But it does have incredible battery life with instant-on and wireless capabilities built-in. Despite its low-power requirements, this platform is able to playback 1080p videos with ease. The main drawback is that it runs on the embedded Windows CE operating system which is not compatible with most PC software. A prototype Tegra unit (pictured) is being showcased at the Computex event.

Via Engadget and Ubergizmo

Filed under: Notebooks, PC & Peripherals
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