Nvidia wants a piece of the netbook market

Graphics processor developer Nvidia is to target the netbook market with its GeForce 9400 graphics processing unit (GPU).

The company said that its Ion platform, which is based on its GeForce GPU, and the Intel Atom GPU would revolutionise netbooks, small form factor devices and all-in-one PCs by improving graphics and rich media performance.

"Until now a high-definition affordable PC was an oxymoron," said Drew Henry, general manager of the MCP business unit at Nvidia.

"The Ion platform pairs the GeForce 9400 with a truly great Intel Atom CPU and lets consumers surf the internet, play top games, edit photos and watch videos all in high definition. This will really energise the PC market in 2009. "

Nvidia said that its GeForce GPU provides up to 10 times the graphics performance of other units, and will play high definition 1080p video and run the latest games. It is also about half the size of the competition and does not compromise on battery life, according to the firm.

"[Online game] Spore looks and runs great with netbook and nettop PCs featuring GeForce GPUs and Atom CPUs," said Lucy Bradshaw, executive producer of Spore. "Gamers will be impressed with the Ion platform's power and portability."

Sam Blackman, chief executive at Elemental Technologies, added: "We have seen that the 16-core GeForce 9400 GPU transcodes video up to 10 times faster than the Intel Atom CPU alone. Regardless of what CPU you have, for the best video transcoding performance an Nvidia GPU is essential."