NVIDIA has confirmed that their next generation Ion 2 GPU for Pine Trail Intel Atom processors will ship in Q1 2010. Unlike the original Ion platform the new Ion 2 will be a standalone GPU only, rather than a chipset that features GPU, memory controller and the motherboard. NVIDIA has changed their approach for netbooks as Intel new Atom processors integrates memory controller and graphics engine in the processor package itself, and NVIDIA doesn’t have the license to manufacture chipset for new Intel processors.

NVIDIA says that the Ion 2 GPU will offer support for Windows 7 Home Premium, 5-10x faster graphics, HD flash video, 1080p Blu-ray playback and Mainstream video games, in comparison to support for Windows 7 Starter, basic graphics and SD flash video playback offered by Intel Atom processors. No word on pricing or exact specification of Ion 2 GPU have been announced, but it is rumored that Ion 2 will have 16-32 graphics cores in place of 8 graphics cores offered by current Ion platform.