Intel and Nvidia have been in a battle of words—and even some litigation—for some time now. The latest front surrounds Intel’s Atom platform: Intel offers integrated graphics with its low-power netbook-driving CPU, and sells those systems to equipment makers cheaper than simple graphics-free versions of the Atom processors. The upshot is that Nvidia’s Ion platform—which pairs up an Nvidia 9400M mobile graphics system with an Atom processor—is far more expensive for computer makers to use…and in the low-margin netbook business, that makes Ion a tough sell.
