Digital Home Thoughts: Intel Says Netbooks Should Not Be So Powerful

"NVIDIA’s ION platform combines an Atom processor with NVIDIA GeForce graphics. The result is a computer platform that gives you notebooks and desktops with low power processors and the ability to handle 1080p HD video playback, Blu-Ray decoding, and a fair amount of 3D graphics processing for modern video games."

So Intel considers the ION platform as too much for the netbook platform. This certainly explains the incremental improvements seen in PineTrail. One the one hand, one could argue that Intel is just protecting their more profitable streams with the CULV line of CPUs. After all, Intel is a business, and they like profits. However, the idea that Intel is telling what I, the customer, wants and being put into a particular cubbyhole just rubs me wrong. The concept of a small, lightweight, powerful, long lasting computer appeals to be for some reason, and I see the NVIDIA ION as a step in that direction. It is the march of progress. I remember over a decade ago, the equivalent of the netbook, while really expensive, were considerably slower. The NVIDIA ION is just pushing the limits to what will be considered normal in a couple of years.