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First wave of Ion 2 ASUS Eee PC 1201PNs lack NVIDIA Optimus
Well, this is sad. While we told you earlier this week that the Ion 2-powered ASUS Eee PC 1201PN wouldn't be arriving until late May, a number of European sites have gotten early review samples of the 12-inch "netbook" -- if you choose to call it that -- and have discovered that it doesn't use NVIDIA's Optimus automatic graphics switching technology. That's right, instead we're told by NVIDIA that the discrete GeForce 201M GPU runs continuously and Intel's integrated chip is never used -- a configuration which sounds like it'll absolutely kill the battery life on this machine. According to Hardware Zone, ASUS made this choice aiming to be the first to market with the next generation of Ion, but an Optimus version of the ASUS Eee PC 1201PN will be ready later this quarter. It also appears that an Eee PC 1215N with both Ion 2 and Optimus is floating around, but we haven't confirmed what's going on with that. We're sorry if we confused you even more, but we'll be keeping our eyes out for the early reviews of the 1201PN to see if our predicted two hours of battery life is on the mark. Update: The 1201PN cannot be updated with firmware to enable Optimus -- the hardware isn't there for the automatic switching.
NVIDIA Ion 2 Acer and ASUS netbooks won't ship until late May
NVIDIA's next generation Ion platform was announced back in early March, so naturally we've been wondering where all the souped-up netbooks based on the tech have been hiding. We wish we had better news, but it looks like the wait will have to go on a little while longer. While NVIDIA claims no delay on its end, ASUS and Acer have confirmed that their respective Ion 2 netbooks will not arrive until the end of May or even as late as the beginning of June in the US. The 12-inch ASUS 1201PN, which packs a dual-core Atom processor and a 16-core Ion chip, is set to hit Europe and Asia in mid to late May and will make its US debut in June. Similarly, Acer's 10-inch Aspire One 532G is planned to be released around Computex in early June. We just have a feeling there will be some more joining the Ion 2 netbook brigade in the interim, but it's looking like we'll just have to kick off the summer with another Ion showdown.
IE9 demoed on Ion-based Eee PC with full GPU acceleration
Although we were a little more focused on Windows Phone 7 Series when we went to MIX 10, Microsoft's other big announcement at the conference was Internet Explorer 9, which offers HTML5 support and support for GPU acceleration throughout the browsing experience. We saw a few demos of the system in action at MIX, but this video from NVIDIA does a little better job showing how helpful that extra GPU boost can be -- IE9 running on the Ion 2-based Eee PC 1201PN smokes a regular Atom-based netbook across a suite of tests. What that's going to mean for battery life is up in the air, especially since the GPU on an Optimus system like the 1201PN kicks in automatically, but it's pretty cool to see a netbook browsing the web at almost desktop-like speeds. Check the video after the break.
Shuttle's Ion 2-equipped XS35 shows off its slimline nettop credentials in hands-on video
In the market for a new HTPC? Then you'll probably be wanting the slimmest possible enclosure that can still fit an optical drive and the grunt to power through HD video. Set aside some of your attention for Shuttle's XS35, in that case, as this 3.3cm-thick slab of engineering contains an Atom D510 (yawn) paired with NVIDIA Ion 2 graphics (yay!), which should in concert deliver buttery smooth 1080p playback, whether through Flash or Blu-ray discs. The integrated optical drive can't run those fancy discs from what we know, but you could easily swap it out with a slimline BR burner, jack your favorite HDMI cable into the back, and have the perfect little movie box. It's passively cooled so there'll be no fan noise, and its price should be pretty endearing considering the aggressively priced competition from Zotac and Acer. See the XS35 in its metallic flesh after the break. [Thanks, JC]
Acer Aspire One 532G with ION 2 priced at an aggressive 379 euros
Now that's how to get our attention. While the English-speaking portion of the Acer press conference left much to be desired, the second half, decidedly more German in vernacular, had a couple great tidbits. Most notable is a price of Acer's AspireOne 532G, the ION 2-equipped netbook initially espied at Mobile World Congress. The slide says it all, sort of: 379 euros -- mighty aggressive, and if history tells us anything, there's a good chance it'll be about $379 when it comes stateside, too. No word on release date as far as we can tell, but you'll definitely want to keep an eye out for this one.
Zotac's ZBOX HD-ID11 has NVIDIA Ion 2 and Atom D510 to thank for excellent media playback (updated)
Like gaming? Move right along to the iBuyPower booth, please. Want an unobtrusive PC that will feed your Hulu and YouTube HD streaming addiction? Say hello to the ZBOX HD-ID11. It's basically a desktop version of the same Ion 2 setups you saw announced on the mobile front yesterday, and as such should provide flawless Flash 10.1 playback while occupying an extremely lean footprint on your desktop. Zotac has matched MSI's Wind Box DE220 with its inclusion of a dual-core 1.66GHz Atom D510 CPU, though it obviously differs with its NVIDIA Ion 2 graphics subsystem that includes 512MB of dedicated DDR3 memory. HDMI 1.3a and standard VESA wall-mounting are expected extras, with six USB ports, integrated 802.11n WiFi, dual-link DVI, and a 6-in-1 media card reader covering the rest of your bases. Check out some 1080p playback on a similarly specced system right here while you wait for pricing and availability to be revealed. Update: We've heard directly from Zotac on the matter of pricing and we're told that the American MSRP will be $209.99 ($239) for the barebones edition, which will require you to add your own hard drive, memory and OS. Update 2: Zotac seem to have been a little too ambitious with the initial price they quoted and have asked us to correct that number upwards by 30 bucks -- MSRP is now expected to land at $239.
NVIDIA's Optimus technology shows its graphics switching adroitness on video
Explaining automatic graphics switching and the benefits thereof can be a somewhat dry affair. You have to tell people about usability improvements and battery life savings and whatnot... it's much more fun if you just take a nice big engineering board, strap the discrete GPU on its own card and insert an LED light for the viewer to follow. NVIDIA has done just that with its Optimus technology -- coming to a laptop or Ion 2-equipped netbook near you -- and topped it off by actually pulling out the GPU card when it wasn't active, then reinserting it and carrying on with its use as if nothing had happened. This was done to illustrate the fact that Optimus shuts down the GPU electrically, which is that little bit more energy efficient than dropping it into an idle state. Shimmy past the break to see the video.
NVIDIA Ion 2 now official; Acer, ASUS and Lenovo at the ready
NVIDIA's Ion 2 chipset -- or "the next generation of Ion" as the company clunkily calls it -- hasn't exactly been a secret, but NVIDIA is finally signing on the dotted line and giving up the deets on the new Intel Atom-compatible graphics chipset. It hasn't been a secret that Ion 2 uses NVIDIA's new Optimus GPU switching tech to automatically toggle between the Pineview chipset's integrated GMA 3150 and a discrete NVIDIA Ion GPU, but we can now confirm that both the 16-core Ion chip for desktops and eight-core unit for netbooks are based on the GeForce G210 GPU. That means Ion 2 should support HDMI out, 1080p Blu-ray and Flash playback, Windows 7 Home Premium, and mainstream gaming out of the box. (Take that, Broadcom Crystal HD.) And unlike Ion numero uno, NVIDIA's also promising up to 10 hours of battery life on netbooks -- thanks to Optimus the system knows when to shut off the discrete GPU when not in use to save power. How about some actual systems? While the Acer Aspire 532G netbook already popped up at MWC, NVIDIA is promising 30 more Ion netbooks, nettops and all-in-ones before the summer. To kick it off, NVIDIA confirmed that ASUS will update its Eee PC 1201PN netbook, Eee Top 2010P, and Eee Box with the new graphics solution, while Lenovo's C200 and Acer's Aspire Revo will also get in on the action. We got to see the Revo strut some Blu-ray playback, so hit the break for some video footage and the full PR. %Gallery-86770% %Gallery-86776%
ASUS Eee PC 1201PN and Eee Top 2010PNT with Ion 2 caught lounging around at CeBIT
You didn't think ASUS would let Acer be the only one with a next-generation Ion netbook, did you? While wandering around ASUS's CeBIT booth we couldn't help but notice some new Ion 2 systems, including the 12.1-inch Eee PC 1201PN. With an identical chassis to the 1201N that we reviewed a few months back, the 1201PN swaps out the Diamondville Atom for a new Pine Trail N450 processor and a discrete NVIDIA GPU. We couldn't figure out much more from the system properties, but the neighboring sign confirmed that Ion 2 would use NVIDIA's Optimus to switch between the discrete and integrated GPU. Around the corner we also stumbled into that Eee Top 2010PNT we heard about awhile back, and just as rumored it packs a dual-core Atom D510 processor along its "next generation Ion." Really more than anything we're looking forward to testing the HD performance and battery life of these new Ion systems, but until then we'll be stuck watching the video below of the 1201PN playing a 720p promo clip. %Gallery-86750%
Shuttle's XS35 nettop is 3.3cm thin, too nice to hide behind your HDTV
Nettops keep getting better, and thinner too if Shuttle's latest is anything to go by. It's the XS35, a 3.3cm thin affair packing a dual-core Intel Atom D510 at 1.6GHz and Ion 2 graphics with HDMI output for easy connectivity to your high definition display of choice. Somehow the company has also found room for five USB ports, VGA and discrete audio outputs, an Ethernet jack, and a card reader. It's passively cooled, so the only noise you'll hear will be the spinning platters of its 2.5-inch hard disk or the spinning of an optical disc, which yes somehow fits in there too (making it perfect for watching your Thunderbirds DVD collection). No price yet but it'll be on display at CeBIT in just a few days and shipping sometime in the second quarter of this year. %Gallery-86599%
Acer Aspire One 532G first to feature NVIDIA Ion 2 switchable graphics
Well here's one we didn't expect to come out of MWC. Acer decided to throw some netbook news into its Liquid E press conference with the 10.1-inch Aspire One 532G -- the first netbook with NVIDIA's Ion 2. Not withstanding the addition of the HDMI port and HD display, the Pine Trail netbook has the same chassis as the previously reviewed 532h, but inside it's a whole different story -- its 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, GMA 3150 GPU graphics, 2GB of RAM and 320GB hard drive will be joined by a discrete NVIDIA GPU. As confirmed by the press release below, it will use NVIDIA's new Optimus automatic switching technology, though it appears Acer is holding out for NVIDIA to officially launch the platform at CeBit to reveal details of the GPU -- but a GeForce G310 seems likely from the rumors. The high-def capable netbook should be available in March, but we'll be listening for a price and more news on this one. In the meantime, hit the break for a relaxing hands-on video and the full PR.
ASUS' Ion 2-based Eee PC to launch in April
Rather than mongering yet another rumor, DigiTimes is apparently reporting as fact that an Ion 2-powered Eee PC will launch in April. It's also expected to host a 12-inch display if we're reading this report correctly. That NVIDIA boost is welcome news since the Pine Trail-only bump given to its Eee PC 1005PE didn't offer much in the way of performance improvements and still can't handle YouTube video in HD. While no direct prices were given, Atom N450-based Eees are expected to drop in price to NT$14,000 (about $439) in Q2 after ASUS depletes its stock of legacy N270- and N280-based Atom netbooks. DigiTimes also notes that its 10-inch Eee PC T101 convertible touchscreen tablet (the T101MT presumably) will launch in late February along with a 12-inch Eee PC built around AMD's Congo.
ASUS EeeTop ET2010PNT hints that NVIDIA Ion 2 is GeForce G310
We were a little disheartened last week when we didn't hear a peep out of NVIDIA about Ion 2, but Pierre of Blogee has dug up some dirt on the next-generation graphics. The ASUS Eee PC ET2010PNT's got a pretty nice looking 20-inch HD multitouch display, but it's also powered by the new Intel Pine Trail D510 processor and NVIDIA GeForce G310 graphics -- which according to the document is being dubbed as Ion 2. Sure, we already knew that the next version of Ion would be compatible with Intel new Atom platform, but we didn't know that they'd be tossing aside the GeForce 9400M for its G310 graphics card (which is apparently just a rebranded G210). As we thought, it looks like this will be a discrete solution, and it appears (if the benchmarks are accurate) that the G310 will be considerably faster than the current Ion platform. We're just hoping the 589MHz 16-core CUDA chip has been tweaked for better power efficiency when it comes to cramming it into netbooks. No word on when the ET2010PNT will be available, but given the initial hold up we saw with Ion 1 we aren't overly optimistic that it will be any time soon.
NVIDIA Ion 2 coming in early 2010, compatible with Pine Trail
Well, here we go: NVIDIA just gave us the heads-up that the next generation of Ion chips (which we'll be calling Ion 2 until it gets a proper name) will be compatible with Intel's new Pine Trail platform and arriving in Q1 of 2010. That's good news, seeing as the Pine Trail-based Eee PC 1005PE we just reviewed didn't offer much of a performance benefit over the older Diamondville chips and definitely couldn't bust through the first few seconds of a YouTube HD clip. Though we got NVIDIA to confirm that it'll improve some of the battery life concerns we've had, we couldn't get much out of them in terms of how Ion 2 will play with the Intel GMA 3150 GPU that's now integrated into the Atom N450 die. NVIDIA also didn't hold back when it came to Intel's reliance on third-party HD accelerator chips for video duties -- they think customers want richer gaming and multimedia experiences on netbooks than Atom alone can offer, and they don't seem to care that Intel keeps calling Ion "overkill." All drama aside we're looking forward to just getting some YouTube and Hulu HD playback on our netbooks -- we'll see what NVIDIA has to show off at CES.
NVIDIA Ion 2 already ordered up by Acer?
If you need yet more reason to delay purchasing a current generation netbook, we're hearing that Acer has eagerly scooped up an order for NVIDIA's Ion 2 chips, which will eventually be found partnering Intel's forthcoming Pineview hardware in machines of the future. With Intel now integrating graphics processing and the memory controller into the CPU packaging, the Ion 2 is expected to serve much more like a discrete GPU than the Ion chipset of today. Plans to support VIA processors are also still firmly in place, should you wish to experience the improved graphics performance outside of the realm of Lord Intel.
NVIDIA Ion 2 still on track for this year
Don't let NVIDIA's recent announcement that they'll be steering clear of Intel DMI CPUs get you down, man. According to the fine folks at Fudzilla, the company will indeed unveil its Ion 2 chipset before the year's end. The second-generation platform is said to feature much faster graphics, over twice the shaders, a smaller die, and support for the VIA Nano as well as the usual compliment of Pentium 4-compatible CPUs. No word yet from the company itself, but you'll know as soon as we do. Promise.[Via SlashGear]
NVIDIA said to be prepping Ion 2 for late 2009
NVIDIA obviously isn't doing much talking about it itself just yet, but Fudzilla apparently has it on good authority that the company is indeed already hard at work on Ion 2, which promises to bring with it plenty of improvements over the already impressive Ion chipset. Chief among those is a decreased die size, "much faster graphics," and more than twice the shaders of the original Geforce 9400M /MCP79 chipset that the current Ion is based on (which uses 16 shaders). Not many more details than that, unfortunately, but NVIDIA is supposedly looking to launch Ion 2 by the end of this year -- although not before it sells plenty more Ion 1s, of course.[Via SlashGear]
