14 DAY TRIAL // NVIDIA, the Santa Clara, California-based graphics chip maker is, apparently, going to enter the market of small-sized, low-power computer systems with a product of its own. Instead of developing a new processor of its own, the green company is now expected to unveil a chipset model that will support Intel's highly successful Atom processor. Initially, the said chipset will only provide support for nettop-ready Atom CPU models.
According to sources within PC vendors, cited by Digitimes, NVIDIA is planning to take a part of the increasingly successful nettop market by enabling PC vendors to create systems based on both Intel and NVIDIA technologies. The support will be provided in the form of an MCP79 chipset that will work with Intel's Atom processing units, which, for the time being, are only supported by specific Intel chipsets. Basically, the news comes to confirm recent details indicating that the company actually plans to watch the netbook market as it grows, and then come out with a product suitable for the evolved versions of the small computer systems.
The technical specifications of the alleged chipset model have not been established yet, but according to the sources mentioned above, three of the largest computer system makers in Taiwan, namely ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI, welcome the collaboration of the two chip makers. This could also mean that, in 2009, PC users will get a chance to acquire a low-power and possibly a low cost nettop featuring technologies from both Intel and NVIDIA. Basically, by this time next year, we might be talking about Intel processors and NVIDIA graphics enabled in a new nettop system.
NVIDIA's interest in the netbook and nettop market is also related to the global economy, which has made major PC makers shift their attention to the increasingly popular market of low-power, low-cost and Internet-capable devices such as netbooks.