There will be cheap Netbooks that can watch HD videos

Nvidia will launch the Ion 2 graphics platform, to increase the advantage of netbooks to become a full-featured multimedia device. Thanks to Ion 2, netbooks can watch high definition videos.

Benefits of the new platform

According to Intel's marketing director, David Ragones, these netbooks are designed to perform basic functions such as surfing the Internet or running effective applications but Ion 2 will complement the ability to watch Blu-movies. Full 1080p resolution or video.

Furthermore, the demand for netbooks with rich multimedia entertainment features will increase as more high-definition content approaches the Web and other multimedia forms.

The Ion 2 graphics platform is a pair of GeForce graphics processors with Intel's latest processor, released in December. Atom chips with integrated graphics processors have the maximum capability of viewing. 720p video but the Nvidia platform will offer a full 1080p video viewing option. Nvidia is best known for its graphics chips, but it also makes chips for cell phones and chipsets.

Ragones said that Nvidia has demonstrated netbooks equipped with the Ion 2 platform, watching high-definition movies very smoothly and vividly, while the same movie was seen on other standard netbooks, images were suspended or slowed. again. The Ion 2 netbook will also be able to play HD videos from websites that contain videos like YouTube and Hulu.

According to Nvidia, the new platform is also a major upgrade for the Ion platform launched last year. The new Ion chip generation provides twice the performance of the previous generation (depending on the number of cores in the graphics chip). Nvidia will sell two versions of Ion graphics chips, one with 8 processor cores for netbooks with 10-inch screens and 16 cores for desktops and netbooks with 12-inch screens.

Limited expansion of netbooks

However, last year's Ion platform caused a lot of disagreement about how to use netbooks between Nvidia and Intel. Intel believes that low-cost netbooks are designed to perform basic functions like web surfing and word processing. Meanwhile, Nvidia said that these devices could have a slightly higher price with graphics power to support high-definition content.

Intel said that high-definition multimedia functions can consume a lot of netbook's battery because of a large processing power. But Nvidia has worked hard to address the concern about netbook battery power by launching an Ion 2 platform with the ability to use power more efficiently. This platform supports the new technology called Optimus so that specific tasks can seamlessly switch between Ion GPUs and the integrated Atom graphics chip to save battery power. This will improve the ability to perform multimedia functions more effectively.

Ragones said that netbooks typically have about 10 hours of battery life when using common applications, but this time can be reduced when performing intensive graphic data tasks. Optimus technology allows Ion graphics processors to work when they are assigned to perform tasks. For example, Optimus technology will be able to shift the burden of specific multimedia tasks such as YouTube video processing to the graphics processor.

Moreover, the company also scaled down the graphics processor size to increase power efficiency. This chip is built using the latest 40nm manufacturing technology. The graphics processor is also faster because they reduce the bottleneck of connecting to the Atom CPU by using faster PCI-Express connection technology. The previous generation often connects via the bus and often has bandwidth problems.

Nvidia said the Ion platform will work with Intel's N450 processor for netbooks and D410 and D510 for low-cost desktops. Most Ion 2-based netbooks are compatible with versions of Windows but not limited to Windows Starter usually for netbooks.

According to Nvidia, the company has won more than 30 designs and others such as Asustek Computer, HP and Lenovo will release netbooks or low-cost desktop computers based on the 2nd Ion platform. provide netbooks based on existing Ion platform. Two weeks ago, Acer announced the Aspire one 532G laptop based on a new platform.