NVIDIA sets sights on low-cost, Intel-free CPUs

NVIDIA, addressing a meeting of financial analysts, has announced plans for a new CPU platform. Currently known only as "The World's Most Affordable Vista Premium PC," the platform would incorporate an integrated graphics processor from NVIDIA alongside one of VIA's upcoming Isaiah CPUs, in a design that would cost below $45. The chip is deliberately intended to compete with Intel, for whom NVIDIA has previously supplied hardware; the latter company claims that its platform is capable of 36 gigaflops, whereas a similarly-priced Intel 945/ICH4 combination is limited to 6.4.

Also unlike the Intel hardware, the NVIDIA platform supports DirectX 10 rendering and Blu-ray decoding. It is further said to be powerful enough, as its name implies, to run Windows Vista Home Premium, where many low-cost platforms are limited to either Home Basic or Windows XP. No release dates have been revealed.

The move is seen as a deliberate snub of Intel, whose integrated graphics chipsets were recently called "a joke" by NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. [via DailyTech]