NVIDIA Releases New Mobile Chip, Leaves Door Open For Mac Compatibility

Graphics chip maker NVIDIA today announced a new high-powered graphics chip set for portable computers, the GeForce2 Go,. Offering features never previously seen in a graphics accelerator for portable computers, the GeForce2 Go, offers up to 32MB of DDR RAM.

C-Net is reporting that Toshiba has already signed a deal to begin using the new graphics boards in their laptop offerings starting in early 2001. While neither Apple nor NVIDIA has announced plans to use NVIDIA products in Macintosh systems, the new chip set is Mac compatible, and certainly leaves the door open for NVIDIA to enter the Mac market.

Currently the Mac graphics market is dominated by ATI, with the ATI Rage Mobility being the card of choice for the iBook and PowerBook. However, based on specifications alone, the GeForce2 Go promises unparalleled performance in the laptop market.

According to NVIDIA:

GeForce2 Go allows business users, artists, and gaming enthusiasts to create, present and entertain anywhere, anytime. As the worldis first mobile graphics processor supporting transform and lighting in hardware, GeForce2 Go delivers breakthrough 3D rendering power, up to ten times faster than that of standard notebooks, processing more than 17 million triangles/second and 286 million pixels/second with a memory bandwidth of 2.6 GB/second. Available in configurations of up to 32MB of DDR SDRAM memory, GeForce2 Go is the first to offer DDR memory on the notebook for responsive graphics.

GeForce2 Go delivers no-compromise image quality integrating high-end 3D features previously only found on desktop PCs. These features include NVIDIAis Shading Rasterizer™ (NSR) which provides per-pixel lighting and shading effects in a single pass and Digital Vibrance Control (DVC)™ for crisp, bright visuals. Mobile professionals also will have the broadest range of display options via GeForce2 Gois TwinView™ architecture, for displaying information on the notebook screen and a second screen such as a desktop monitor, conference room projector or TV.

For multimedia and entertainment enthusiasts, GeForce2 Go delivers a host of video and home cinema features including accelerated MPEG-2 and DVD playback. GeForce2 Go is ideal for most games and applications as it is fully optimized for both industry application program interfaces, OpenGL® and Microsoft® Direct3D® specifications.

You can find more information about the GeForce2 Go at the NVIDIA web site, and read the full C-Net article for their full story.