Rumour: VIA and Nvidia decide NOT to join netbook race

Posted by Al Warmington on Thu 6 Nov 2008

No Atom-killer this time, sorry

In a peculiar upheaval of normal proceedings, two tech companies have decided that they won't be making their very own Eee PC clone. According to insiders, CPU maker VIA and graphics processor manufacturer Nvidia have shelved their planned agreement which could have seen the launch of a new breed of netbook. One that might have done the impossible and not been identical to every single other one in the market.

The partnership was exciting because it brought the potential for change in the way netbooks are currently designed. Because VIA makes its own CPUs, that would have bucked the universal trend for equipping mini sub-notebooks with the same old Intel Atom processor.

Nvidia has its own graphics expertise to bring to the table which would have yielded an onboard graphics solution that could have enhanced multimedia and gaming capabilities to higher levels than is currently possible on the diminutive lappies.

Sadly, it wasn't to be; the deal is believed to have been suspended after Nvidia became unhappy with the direction of the programme.

Is that because at long last there are just too many netbooks in the market for anyone to get their head around? The heck it is. Actually, Acer - proud creator of the Aspire One - reckons there's a ton of space left in the netbook market. It recently predicted that 25 million of things will be sold next year alone, to act as people's second or third computers.

The question will thus remain: 512MB or 1GB, HDD or SSD, 8.9" or 10", Linux or Vista?

(via The Reg)