Good news, everyone! ION 2 has been officially announced for a 2009 release. ION 2 will still have support for Intel Atom and VIA Nano processors as well as other similar processors. Newer mobile processors with DMI chipsets like the Arrandale Core i5 will not be supported by ION 2. No exact release date yet, but it will definitely be shipping before the new year.
Just getting back from my holiday and found a rather curious concept from motherboards producer DFI: the hybrid P45-ION-T2A2 packs two PCs onto one motherboard. How is that possible ?
The guys at TweakTown were invited at DFI HQs for an exclusive look at the “thing”. On the same board you can find an Intel Atom+Nvidia ION and a P45 chipset+a 775 Socket. According to DFI, this new approach “allows for two systems to run shared (KVM style) or fully independent of each other, on the one single board.”
Announced at a price-tag of $400, it remains to be seen how many fans this new concept will attract. Personally, I think there are far better options in this price range…
Zotac has finally decided to jump into the ION nettop game with its new MAG PC. Zotac has been the biggest name in ION motherboards since the beginning, and now it looks like they plan to extend that dominance into the nettop realm. The MAG, or mini all-in-one giant, comes with either a dual-core Atom 330 or a single core 230. Both have a 160 GB hard drive, 2 GB DDR2-800 RAM, and a plethora of connectivity options including: eSATA, 6 USB 2.0, gigabit ethernet, VGA, HDMI, SPDIF, and a memory card reader. What the MAG does NOT come with is an OS, keyboard, and mouse so you will have to fend for yourself for those. Neither the price nor the release date have been mentioned yet.
We have heard about Adobe working on a new version of Flash that would take advantage of NVIDIA’s CUDA technology, but now it has officially been announced. This means that low power computers that use an NVIDIA graphics processor can enjoy smooth HD Flash video playback while at the same time reducing the load on the CPU. There is still no knowing if ATI users or people stuck with Intel integrated graphics will be able to join the bandwagon or not.
Not only do ION and Tegra users get to enjoy the hardware accelerated goodness, smart phone users (sorry no iPhone yet) will be getting Flash support when 10.1 is released. Flash for the iPhone may still be in development, but nothing official has been announced yet. Google Android, Palm WebOS, Nokia Symbian S60, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry will all be supported when the new release comes out.
Flash 10.1 is currently scheduled to be released in the first half of 2010, so don’t get too excited yet. In the meantime check-out this demo video of Flash video playback on an HP Mini 311:
Source
ASUS brings an impressive offering to the nettop world with its EB1501 nettop. Not only does it have ION, but it also comes with the dual-core Atom 330. It comes with all of the usual ION features like HDMI etc. but this nettop stands apart from the rest in a few ways. First, you can have up to 4 GB ram, which is more than the average nettop these days. The EB1501 also has a nice slot loading DVD drive which keeps the nettop nice and slim. Expect to see this thing in stores sometime after the Windows 7 release on October 22nd with a price tag of about $581.00 (€399).
As you probably heard, HP and Dell are preparing Ion-based devices for this year-end.
According to NetbookNews.de, Compaq Mini 311c is HP’s answer to the Ion-based netbooks offensive. Featuring an Atom N270 CPU and ION LE GPU, the 11.6″ netbook packs 1 Gb of DDR3 RAM, 160 Gb of SATA HDD, the usual “goodies” (802.11b/g WiFi, 3x USB2.0 ports, card-reader, Bluetooth, HDMI, 6-cell battery) and Altec-Lansing speakers (that’s nice !!!). Limited by the ION LE GPU (featuring DirectX9 support only), the netbook will come with Win XP SP3.
HP Compaq Mini 311c
There are clear indications related to the commercial launch and the price, although morecomputers.com displays it at the price of 336 GBP / 384 Euro / $550.
Netbooked managed to get some “inside intel” on Asus’ near-future roadmap. After the AIO series (EeeTop ET2002, ET2002T), the Nettop series (EeeBox EB1012) and the AT3N7A-I motherboard, a new Ion-based device will be available in Q4 2009 – the EeePC 1201N netbook.
Although not spectacular, the specifications are rather interesting: the N270 Atom processor takes place under the hood instead of the usual N230. 12″ display (most probably 1366 x 768), 2 Gb of RAM, 250 Gb HDD and a 6-cell battery will also be present. What can we say ? We’re looking forward to see the new product !
In a recent article on China-related technology site Shanzai, an Ion-based netbook produced by and for the Chinese market is presented. The Chinese PC manufacturer CASZH created a prototype (no name for the “toy”, yet) of a netbook with Atom 230 processor and Nvidia Ion graphics.
Regarding the specs of the netbook, there’s no “revolution” inside: 10.1″ display (1024 x 600), 1 Gb RAM, 160 Gb HDD, WiFi, 3-cell battery, Webcam, HDMI.
What can be seen as a “revolution” is the possible price – less than $300. Considering the offers of Lenovo ($499 for IdeaPad S12) and Samsung ($599 for N510), we may encounter pleasant surprises if this netbook will be launched on western markets.
Asus AT3N7A-I – that’s the name of the new Ion-based motherboard launched on the market. The team at BlogEee prepared a review of it:
The motherboard packs a 1.6 GHz Dual-core Atom 330 processor and supports Dual-channel DDR2 800MHz memory, 7.1 channels audio (S/PDIF also), Bluetooth, eSATA and SATA connections. The HDMI port is also present in order to benefit of the 1080p video rendering on a large screen. Displaying a Mini-ITX format coupled with all these features, the board is intended for use in Media-Centers or HTPCs.
Asus AT3N7A-I
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