NVIDIA has confirmed that it is working on a VIA-based Ion platform, something that was hinted back in March 2008 already. Back then NVIDIA was speaking of a new platform for VIA’s Nano processor and the demonstrations that happened last year had systems sporting the GeForce 9400M chipset. In other words the same base as NVIDIA as with the Ion platform for Intel Atom and Apple’s latest MacBook notebooks.
Considering Atom’s steamrolling progress it doesn’t seem entirely unlikely that NVIDIA decided to switch focus and instead develop an Atom platform as soon as possible, which unfortunately resulted in a heavy delay of the initial VIA platform.
Either way, VIA’s processors will get a new NVIDIA platform in 2009, but the specifics are yet to be revealed. Ion for Intel Atom is expected to debut in the second quarter this year.
