News - NVIDIA's ION platform to get it on with VIA's Nano processor?

[HEXUS]

A VIA Nano processor coupled with NVIDIA's GeForce 9400M could make for a viable alternative to Intel's Atom.

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[nichomach]

Samsung NC20 Mk.2? I can see that working VERY nicely...

[kingpotnoodle]

Do VIA really want that any more than Intel... Surely VIA would like to sell the bundled chipset as well?

[nichomach]

Maybe they'd like to, but Via's market penetration in the x86 processor space is woefully small. Anything that helps Nano gain some traction is a win.

[Breezey]

Glad to see some competition out there for the Atom.

[scaryjim]

Maybe they'd like to, but Via's market penetration in the x86 processor space is woefully small. Anything that helps Nano gain some traction is a win.

Plus I'd *guess* that Ion-Nano will cost more than an all-Via solution, giving Via 2 potential markets.

Isn't Intel planning to launch it's own discreet GPU at some point? I wonder if they're planning on having a wider range of integrated graphics cores with different performance levels, and if that's got anything to do with this spat with NVidia? I could easily see them launching a budget range of boards with GMA and a mid-range of boards with an integrated Larrabee-based GPU...

[kalniel]

Is this known as plan B in case Intel get fed up of nVidia and the various court cases?

[amdavies]

VIA's chipset has never been the greatest and afaik their CPUs are only available in motherboards based on VIA's own tech, pairing up the two would seem a logical conclusion.
nVidia seem to be being squeezed between Intel and it's graphics products on one side and AMD and its acquisition of ATI on the other. I'm not sure why the supposed takeover of VIA by nvidia fell down (more than likely cost), but it would seem in the best interests of both parties for some sort of merger to happen.

[baius]

...it would seem in the best interests of both parties for some sort of merger to happen.

That's interesting. I didn't know that nVidia tried to take over Via. Makes sense, though.

[amdavies]

http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news...ion-rumors.ars

The current Intel enmity towards nvidia, for a number of perceived reasons, could help things along in one direction or another. For the moment, Intel needs nvidia to counter ATI, however it remains to be seen how far Intel wants to go with Larrabee when it arrives (supposedly next year). If, as is rumoured, it is Intel's answer to the high-end gaming cards of ATI and nvidia, then things may get real interesting, real fast.