Two versions of ‘next-generation ION’ due

There are still many question marks over how Nvidia’s next-generation ION will shape up. We reported recently that benchmarks for ION 2 might signal that performance may lag or be worse off than the original ION, something refuted by Nvidia. Now we are hearing from Fudzilla that Nvidia may in fact launch two ION chips, the slower one of which was benchmarked on the Acer Aspire One 532g netbook at MWC in Barcelona last week.

The slower ION will have less shaders than the current ION, whilst the faster version will have more and should be more powerful than the current ION chipset. They go on to say that Nvidia will not brand these chips ION 2 and will instead continue to brand it ION.

If true, I’m not sure how it will work in practice. After all, how will consumers realise exactly what ION chip is in which netbook. Many people are already confused over ION and ION LE. While I can understand that Nvidia may not want to infer this next generation as ION 2 given the small performance improvements, some distinction is necessary even if just for Nvidia’s game-changing Optimus technology.