Nvidia Ion - pico-ITX

I did not see this posted in the HTPC section, but I think I may just have to get one of these.



http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3478&p=1
http://www.nvidia.com/object/sff_ion.html

Summary:
- Intel Atom + Nvidia 9400M
- pico-ITX form factor (10 cm x 7.2 cm)
- 1080p/24 over HDMI
- 7.1 LPCM over HDMI
- DDR3 SO-DIMM
- eSATA, USB 2.0, optical audio, analog 8ch audio, internal SATA port, DVI, HDMI, VGA, gig-ethernet
- full of win

Wow, those things look really cool. I'd probably get rid of my HTPC and run these while pulling movies from my server. It's just too bad most of the connectors are on the front but i would try to find a way to mount it to the back of my tv.

Well, that's just a reference design type unit. I'm sure we'll see them taken and sold under different manufactures being capable of different things, with various OS platforms implemented on them. Some with Vista, some with Windows 7, some using custom linux distros, some standalone units like Popcorn Hour, etc.

Also, nvidia is enabling CUDA support for CoreAVC, so non-compliant spec x264 videos will be acceleratable with ultra low CPU usage. It should be out 1st or 2nd quarter 2009. They're also doing VDPAU for unix/linux systems which is similar. Nvidia seems to be doing a lot of things right in the HTPC market lately.

i think i will be in love...

Sweetness

Here's a related discussion: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1375954

Very cool. Looks like a real HTPC winner.