14 DAY TRIAL // As we reported yesterday, Lenovo has become the first system vendor to announce a netbook that is powered by NVIDIA's low-power Ion platform, which couples an Intel Atom processor with a GeForce 9400M chipset. The first Ion-based netbook has been designed with a 12-inch display, which makes it a bit of a hybrid between a low-power, ultraportable PC and a small-sized netbook. However, the 12-inch form factor also exceeds the guidelines imposed by both Intel and Microsoft, which have set a number of limitations for their small notebook PC products.
The netbook form factor has been largely discussed since the release of the first such device. At first, Intel released a guideline of what the netbook form factor should be, a measure that was meant to restrict netbooks from cannibalizing the notebook sales. However, those “limitations” were quickly ignored by various system vendors, which launched Atom-based netbooks with different form factors.
In a recent turn of events and according to a leaked document, supposedly coming from Microsoft, the Redmond, Washington-based software giant has also pointed a couple of restrictions for its upcoming Windows 7 operating system. As some of you already know, this OS has been specifically designed to work on both mainstream and low-end systems, unlike the company's current Windows Vista operating system, which requires higher resources from the user's PC. The company has listed a series of limitations for the Windows 7 SKU for small notebook PCs, limitations that are currently exceeded by Lenovo's IdeaPad S12 Ion netbook.
According to the document, small notebook PCs, or netbooks, shouldn't be higher than 10.2 inches and have more than 1GB of RAM. The systems must be equipped with either a high-capacity 250GB HDD or a high-performance 64GB SSD. The processors must not exceed 2GHz and the CPU thermal design must be less or equal to 15W. Fortunately, there are no limitations in the graphics department and the thermal specifications for CPU exclude the graphics and chipset. However, Lenovo's IdeaPad S12 has a 12-inch display and can support a higher memory capacity, thanks to NVIDIA's Ion chipset.
The guidelines set by Intel and Microsoft are part of a strategy to prevent netbook systems from taking too much of the other computer segments. Time will tell if these hardware limitations will ultimately affect the growing netbook segment.