Apple: the next Mac Mini would be based on NVIDIA Ion
During the weeks before the MacWorld, many rumors had appeared to offer different products that we should see. Ultimately, very few were actually came and then the side of the machines, only the MacBook Pro Unibody in its 17 inches was reported. And the Mac Mini? And the quad-core iMac?
For the Mac Mini, nothing is dead yet. No more than the iMac elsewhere. It seems that the choice of materials Apple deal with components that are not yet ready or are too young. For the Mac Mini in particular, rumors of a partner from NVIDIA reported that the machine should be equipped in line with the latest platform Ion already mentioned.
What platform Ion? It is a collection based on a motherboard with a chipset that actually meets the northbridge, the southbridge and a graphics solution, which is a GeForce 9400M. Ion is intended for Atom processors and allows the ship DDR3 SO-DIMM, while posting a TDP of 12W for chipset. We understand that the platform, coupled with a processor Atom N330, of great interest to Apple.
According partner NVIDIA, whose information was collected by Tom’s Hardware, the Cupertino firm was the first to receive samples of the platform, as well as prototype machines. Tom’s Hardware is estimated that by the compactness of the solution from NVIDIA, the next Mac Mini could be even smaller than the current, whose dimensions are 5.08 x 16.51 x 16.51 cm (with a weight of 1.31 kg).
Remember that the Atom N330 processor is running at 1.6 GHz but it is double-heart. The direct advantage of NVIDIA’s solution for the Mac Mini is that the new version of the latter would be more powerful, but the GeForce 9400M replace very favorably especially the very old GMA 950.
As for the iMac, the door remains open, but all indications are that it is really quad-core processors that will replace the current Core 2 Duo, clocked at 2.4 GHz to 3.06 depending on the model.
