Acer, Nvidia Team Up for Ion-Powered Nettop PC

Acer and Nvidia announced the first Ion-powered PC, the AspireRevo, which they say packs the punch of any full size PC but also a compact design the size of a hardcover book.

The world’s third largest computer manufacturer, Acer, and chipmaker Nvidia announced, through a bombastic press push, the result of a partnership that sees Nvidia’s Ion processor deployed in a compact Acer computer. The release marks the first time Ion technology has been used in a PC. Acer labeled the AspireRevo a “nettop” computer, a cross between a netbook and a desktop.

Nvidia compares the size of the AspireRevo to that of a hardcover book but repeatedly describes the machine as a desktop computer with advanced graphics and a slew of multimedia features. Nvidia says the system can handle a wide variety of computing needs including high definition video, gaming, sharing digital photos, surfing the web and other tasks expected from full-size systems. No price point was announced.

“The Acer AspireRevo with our new Nvidia ION GPU is so small and powerful it’s unbelievable,” said Nvidia’s senior vice president of marketing Dan Vivoli. “[You can] watch Blu-ray movies and HD movie trailers, or clean up jerky, dim cell phone videos for Internet streaming.” Vivoli called the AspireRevo “the perfect PC” for today’s consumers.

The Ion processor supports Windows Vista Home Premium, the aforementioned HD video (1080p) with “true-fidelity” 7.1 audio, DirectX 10 graphics with digital display connectivity and video enhancement, as well as transcoding using Nvidia CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) technology.

Acer says the GPU, which matches Intel’s Atom 230 processor with the Ion graphics processor, delivers ten times faster graphics performance than other small desktop PCs and is an energy-conscious device. Acer is also pushing the PC’s ease of connectivity with a variety of devices, highlighting the 802.11b/g (and /Draft-N on selected models) wireless or Gigabyte Ethernet network connections and the HDMI portal.

The AspireRevo comes with a choice of a Serial ATA Hard Drive or Solid State Drive and up to 4GB of DDR2memory and a Mini PCI Express slot, which allows for memory capacity expansion. In an effort to highlight the gaming capabilities, Acer said it’s bundling the AspireRevo with a game controller with 3D motion sensors, which can be used like a pointing-device (air mouse) or remote control for the media center, and is adaptable different gaming scenarios such as an airplane/race-car steering device, or a tennis racket/baseball bat or a shooting device with built-in trigger.

“The Acer AspireRevo is a bold new direction for the PC industry,” Acer thundered in a press release. “It is a compact, stylish, fully capable PC that uses less energy and provides a brilliant visual experience for daily digital life.”