Nvidia ION

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Nvidia ION is a system platform of the semiconductor developer Nvidia , a GeForce 9400M G (MCP79), DDR2 - or DDR3 - SDRAM and an Intel Atom processor comprises. Nvidia presented the platform in February 2009 in the form of a Pico-ITXe reference motherboard . At the beginning of summer 2009, the first ION-based devices appeared in retail stores, mainly as barebones , nettops , complete systems and mainboards with a CPU soldered on.

development

Zotac ION ITX-BE / -DE
Connection panel of the Zotac ION
Samsung N510, one of the first netbooks with Nvidia ION

ION was the first platform for Intel's Atom microarchitecture to include an integrated graphics processor (IGP). ION supports the playback of high-resolution videos and, thanks to the support of CUDA , is more powerful and flexible in other areas than the chipset solutions from Intel. The graphics core GMA945 (mobile version: 945GCSE ) actually intended by Intel for the Atom platform is significantly slower with higher power consumption at the same time.

Before the advent of the 2nd generation of the Intel Atom processor and the simultaneous use of hardware decoder chips, such as the Broadcom BCM70012 , the Ion platform was the only way to record videos in 720p50 or 1080p50 (e.g. from Blu-rays ) to play smoothly on netbooks and nettops. In the 2nd generation, Ion is only implemented as a graphics accelerator, as Intel abolished the front side bus as an interface in the associated Atom generation, similar to the Intel Core-i processors , and relocated northbridge functions to the CPU. The Intel NM10 chipset contains an Intel graphics core ( GMA 3150 ) and connects peripherals to the CPU via a direct media interface .

Technical specifications

There are basically two generations of the Ion platform, which differ in particular in terms of scope and component selection.

1st generation: Intel Atom 230/330 / N270 with Ion as chipset , which u. a. North Bridge - and Southbridge functions ( Nvidia MCP79 contains) (e.g., SATA RAID graphics core is connected to the.. GeForce 9400M identical.)

2nd generation: Intel Atom N450 with Ion as graphics card, which was implemented via PCIe -x1 card. Either in the classic plug-in card design or mini-PCIe graphics accelerator (graphics core mostly GeForce 210M ). An MXM graphics card module for larger notebook designs as such does not exist, and Nvidia is probably not intended. Often conceived as a hybrid graphic (e.g. Nvidia Optimus ), i. H. the GMA3150 graphics core of the Intel NM10 - chipset is available and if necessary by driver switched off or not on the connections (u a.. HDMI and VGA connected in the reference design). Conversely, depending on the model and implementation, the Nvidia graphics can be switched off under Windows 7 and Linux .

Functions

Here the 1st generation of the Ion platform. Not all functions are available depending on the implementation.

There is no known motherboard that provides all interfaces (especially the maximum of 5 PCI slots or all 20 PCIe lanes) based on the Ion platform, as this requires a mainboard with a larger form factor than the intended Mini-ITX . However, there are corresponding boards in the slightly larger DTX format .

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