Posted on Wednesday, January 14 2009 @ 3:25 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
At the Consumer Electronics Show last week, NVIDIA was showing off a new reference platform that they were calling the world's smallest fully capable visual computer. Features like DirectX 10 graphics, NVIDIA CUDA technology, and HD video are now possible in a 3" x 4" motherboard. This PC is so small that it fits in the palm of your hand with room left to spare.
"The Pico-ITX form factor specifications call for the board to be 10 x 7.2 cm (3.9 x 2.8 in) and that is exactly what size the NVIDIA Ion board is. To get an idea of just how small the Pico-ITX form factor is you really need to place it next to an ATX motherboard, which is 305 mm wide by 244 mm deep (12" x 9.6"). The NVIDIA Ion platform is dwarfed by today's standard desktop motherboards, but at the same time still offers true-fidelity 7.1 HD audio and HDMI outputs that can do resolutions as high as 2560 x 1600..."
You can check out some benchmark figures
at Legit Reviews, the site reports the platform plays 1080p HD video at 40MB/s without a problem.
