Lenovo first up for NVIDIA Ion in netbooks?
updated 08:20 am EST, Wed February 18, 2009
Lenovo NVIDIA Ion Rumor
Lenovo may be one of the first PC makers to adopt NVIDIA's Ion platform in a netbook, the Taiwan-area Commercial Times paper claims. The PC maker is reportedly asking local contractor Wistron to build 11.6- and 12.1-inch IdeaPads for the spring that would combine the much faster, GeForce 9400M-level graphics of Ion with an Intel Atom processor. The company is also said mulling a 13-inch model using the same technology.
A 12-inch system based on VIA's Nano platform is also an option, according to the purported leak.
The news suggests that the desktop mentioned by NVIDIA as the first Ion system will be quickly followed by a netbook and that PC makers may better Microsoft's own official expectations, which would have Windows systems using Ion appearing by summer.
NVIDIA itself has remained unusually quiet on its customers for Ion and is rumored to have given Apple some of the earliest access to the technology, though it's unclear what if any products would be planned; a quick Lenovo netbook release would point to the reference hardware being ready quickly and thus letting Apple or any other companies potentially release Ion systems ahead of the summer target.
