Nvidia mulls muscling in on Intel's netbook baby

NVIDIA IS FLIRTING with the idea of entering the little laptop arena, but will apparently only make a move once the market has grown and matured somewhat.

Nvidia’s chief financial officer, Marv Burkett, speaking on a webcast from the Credit Suisse annual technology conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, noted that the netbook market was a growing one which Nvidia would be keeping its beady eye on.

"We're not saying we're not interested; it's a matter of how the market will evolve," Burkett noted, reiterating the potential for netbooks to branch out into smartphones and more multimedia orientated crotch tops.

Little lappies, with screens of 10 inches or less, have, up until now, been mostly Intel territory, with Chipzilla’s Atom processor bunged into most current netbook models. But the little machines are really only useful for web surfing and non computer intensive tasks, meaning that, graphically, they suck big time.

Nvidia reckons it can help netbooks get over their graphical impairments by bunging in their own integrated chipsets and the big ideas men and women at Nvidia now seems to be gravitating more towards 'think small'. For instance, the Green Goblin is close to shipping Tegra system-on-chip for smartphones next year, and has already signed a deal with Via to make graphics chipsets designed for laptops and mini-laptops.

So, watch out Intel, the Nvidia crotch-top cradle-snatcher may just be about to pounce on your precious netbook baby. µ

L'Inq
PC World