Nvidia Ion launching this quarter

Nvidia’s Ion platform is expected to appear this quarter (April to June) according to an official press release. Nvidia’s Ion is an Intel Atom system that has been powered-up with a GeForce 9400M in place of the ageing 945 chipset. Though the 9400M is new to the Atom, it’s an established chipset that’s already found in full-spec notebooks such as the Dell Studio XPS 13 and the Apple MacBook.

One of the first Ion-based nettops could be the Acer Hornet, which is believed to be launching in Beijing on April 8th. Intended to fit on the back of a flatscreen monitor, the Hornet offers both media centre functionality and motion-sensitive games, similar to the Nintendo Wii.

Its appearance in netbooks/nettops will mean that these low-power systems should be able to handle modest 3D gaming and decode 1080p video content without breaking a sweat. Personally we can’t wait to see the appearance of Ion in a netbook, but its success will depend on the pricing. However, to try and convince you how big a deal this really is, Nvidia has got some industry bigwigs (Adobe, Google, Microsoft, and Electronic Arts) together to tell you so. Check out the video after the jump.