Nvidia ION Platform Windows Certified – See It On Video
Reference design image from trustedreviews.com
Nvidia’s small form factor (SFF) computing platform has received Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL) certification for its drivers. What makes this noteworthy is the new platform is both tiny, as illustrated above, and dirt cheap (starting at about $300 US when shipping) and a not insignificant amount of horsepower under the hood. This looks like a break out platform for the growing netbook/nettop device segment, as it provides significantly more graphics power than the current crop of Intel graphic chips ubiquitous to the low-end market.
The lower end ION units will be powered by the same Intel Atom chips found inside your typical netbook, but but the graphics power is actually impressive, as they run the Nvidia GeForce 9400M GPU. The graphics chip is powerful enough to provide smooth playback of high def content, including Blu Ray players. Though all pre-release reviews suggest it won’t be good for the high polygon gamer (F.E.A.R. runs at 26fps at 1024×768), it’s certainly more than powerful enough to be a great Home Theatre PC.
Some of it’s capabilities include HD video decode acceleration on the GPU, 7.1 HD audio support, and on screen resolutions up to 2560×1600, more than enough to put your desktop on your home theatre, and DX10 gaming support. Nvidia also plans on releasing higher priced ION boxes with Intel’s Core2Duo technology, which should increase the gaming performance by quite a bit, as I imagine the CPU is the major bottleneck in an Atom setup, not the GPU.
Given the suggested bang to buck performance, there’ll be little reason to not get one of these coupled with a Blu Ray player to be a great home theatre solution that beats the performance of any current media extender solution. The only thing that is unclear at the moment is whether DVR capability will be added to the system, though I imagine some external USB solutions should work, if running in an Windows environment.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see ION be the update platform for the Mac Mini, though personally, I can’t wait to see it running Windows 7 Home Premium. Media Center is the king of living room TV viewing, bar none. Given the prohibitive cost of building a custom HTPC in the past, a cheap and modular option like the ION is very appealing.
UPDATE: TweakTown has added a video from a joint Microsoft/Nvidia press conference, which demonstrates Windows 7 multitasking with the ION platform, including some HD Left 4 Dead action, as well as simultaneous HD playback while the video was being downconverted. TT has no embed available, but you can watch it in action here…
Im scratching my head wondering why i would need one of these…
Why, to run Windows Media Center on your big screen TV. WMC trumps any other media extender (Xbox, PS3, VuDu etc), especially if you get it with DVR functionality built in. That way you’re not tied to a cable providers solution, and it’s much more versatile.
The other point is that the platform is also being designed for netbooks, with an estimated $30-50 premium over the Intel graphics being used now.
You wouldn’t want your Aspire to have some 9400 graphics power?
i have an HD PVR… and i game too much as it is 😛
I’m wondering if I can patent the phrase “SetTop Computer”. Cuz that’s SO what this is.
I like Front Row a LOT, and don’t see any major benefit of WMC over Front Row…meaning that this is an excellent media PC solution for anyone IMHO. (This costs about half what a Mac Mini costs, and is infinitely more useful than the generally stupid AppleTV.)
As some know, my iMac is hardwired through the wall to my TV in the next room and I control everything with my iPhone via RemoteBuddy (easily the best remote desktop for the Mac EVAR), so I don’t need this…but if my setup was different, I’d be running out to buy one of these tomorrow.
^^^add to that the ability to plug in a BluRay drive, something you CAN’T do on a Mac (fuckers), and you have a $500 solution for virtually all your media needs.
WMC is a full set top solution with live TV and DVR functionality, an awesome EPG and all the other fun online and streaming stuff.
The only thing that makes in incomplete outside of the US is that HD recording can only be done OTA outside of the US (at least officially). Some cable/sat set tops that have Firewire ports CAN be connected to WMC to allow HD recording with a free WMC add on, but until Bell/Rogers offer CableCard, no HD cable recording support. Plus, a manufacturer would have to provide some ION hardware that included Firewire for this to work outside the US.
~WMC is a full set top solution with live TV and DVR functionality,~
Well that’s the big difference right there.
Yup this thing is awesome 🙂
I still have no clue what this thing can do for me that i already cannot do…
Am I the only one seeing something troubling in the fact that they had to get it m$-certified before releasing? This is kinda ridiculous – hardware manufacturers relying on a single software company before releasing their <a href=” http://www.casino-craps-game.com/“casino craps game product. And another thing – Vista on Atom? Hell yeah, you’ll have to wait a couple of minutes before all the “essential” bloatware loads just to watch something. Makes me lol so hard…