Nvidia said it expects netbooks to be available for sale this summer with its low-cost Ion graphics chipset.
Nvidia's Ion chipset should be available in netbooks this summer
Netbooks, low-end notebooks typically costing $500 or less, are the fastest growing category of personal computers – and Nvidia doesn’t want to be left out.
The company has been hit hard by the downturn and the soft PC market and badly needs new sources of growth.
Nvidia demonstrated Ion at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show and says it is an ideal companion to Intel’s low-cost Atom computer processor – which helped spawn the netbook market. Some early reviewers agree that the performance is good.
On Wednesday, Nvidia will announce that Ion has been certified for use with Microsoft’s Windows operating system.
This should set the chip on course to be in the market this summer. Nvidia said it expects Ion machines to sell for as low as $299.
