Few days back, it was reported that Intel has no plans to validate or form partnership with NVIDIA to support Ion platform.  That has changed today, an Intel’s spokesman has denied the statement. Intel’s Bill Calder told InternetNews that nothing is stopping netbook makers from shipping Atom based products using NVIDIA’s Ion platform. He said, “We sell Atom as a stand-alone processor or as package with chipset”. Basically meaning that netbook maker can buy standalone Intel Atom processor and pair it with NVIDIA’s 9400M graphics processor.
In our earlier report we believed that the two main reasons why Intel is against NVIDIA’s Ion platform were Intel doesn’t want to loss its grip on netbook market and second, Intel’s integrated GPU is not even comparable to 9400M GPU.
We think the sudden change in Intel’s stand regarding Ion Platform is because of antitrust concerns. Intel is the biggest CPU maker and has around 80 percent market share. If it sells its CPU only as a package with chipset, it would look like roadblock created by Intel to continue its monopoly on the CPU market.
It’s a good news both for NVIDIA and the general netbook market as NVIDIA 9400M GPU will not only increase the graphical capabilities of the netbooks, but will also increase competition in netbook market, which is always good for innovation.
[Via Macnn]