I didn’t get a chance to stop by the Zotac booth at CES last week,but the folks at Tech Report have a roundup of items that were on display. One of the most interesting is a version of the Zotac MAG nettop. The original version of this mini-laptop shipped with an Intel Atom 230 or 330 processor and NVIDIA ION graphics. But th enew model appears to have been bumped up to an Intel Atom Pine Trail CPU and NVIDIA GT218 graphics.
While the demo unit was labeled “non-working,” rumor has it that the GT218 graphics core will power NVIDIA’s upcoming ION 2 platform. Basically, since the Intel Atom Pine Trail platform bundles graphics and CPU functions onto a single chip, ION 2 isn’t expected to be a chipset like the first generation ION platform. Instead, ION 2 will likely be a discrete graphics solution. It could even come on a PCIe card that you can slot into any netbook or nettop with an open slot, much the way you an with a Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator.
Unfortunately, there’s no real information about what lies underneath the fan on this demo unit. And NVIDIA isn’t expected to officially introduce ION 2 for at least a few more months.
Zotac also had an Intel CULV powered 11.6 inchlaptop and an Atom-powered 10 inch touchscreen tablet on hand at CES. It’s not clear yet whether either of these systems will be sold in the US, but you can check out more pictures at Tech Report.
via Netbooked
