Nvidia has been pretty tight with Via, the scrappy maker of low-power chips for tiny laptops and mobile internet devices, to the point of sparking rumors Nvidia wanted to buy ’em. But Taiwanese rag Digitimes says their buddy-buddy relationship is just leverage for Nvidia to muscle its way into Intel’s Atom platform.
https://gizmodo.com/giz-explains-under-the-hood-of-the-newest-laptops-and-5012918
Supposedly, if Nvidia’s IGP chipsets is allowed to support Atom, then Nvidia is donezo with Via. It’d be a major blow for relatively tiny chip company that would simultaneously bolster Atom’s position in the low-cost market. I have to admit I like the idea of cheap Atom notebooks with Nvidia chips, but the setup for more Intel hegemony is unnerving, to say the least. [Digitimes]
