Just weeks after announcing their partnership, Acer Labs Inc (Ali) and Nvidia Corp have unveiled their first integrated chipset and graphics accelerator product, the Aladdin Riva TNT2. As expected, the Northbridge chipset is targeted at the $1,000 PC market and supports Intel Corp’s Pentium II, III and Celeron processors.
The Aladdin merges Ali’s Slot 1/Soclet 370 Northbridge design with the well-regarded Riva TNT2 graphics accelerator from Nvidia. The infrastructure supports up to 1.5Gb of synchronous DRAM as well as DVD decoder software and TV and digital flat panel outs. Coupled with Ali’s M1535D Southbridge, the infrastructure offers audio and soft modem support and four USB ports. Gigabyte, ASUSTek, CP Technology, ABIT Computer and Acer Group itself will be introducing motherboards using the new chipset.
The Acer/Nvidia chipset is bad news for Intel, which claims to have been enjoying runaway success with its integrated graphics chipset, the 810 (aka ‘Whitney’). The Aladdin represents the first real competition for the 810. VIA Technologies Inc is yet to announce integrated graphics/chipset products resulting from its recent acquisitions of the Centaur and Cyrix x86 units – although a roadmap is expected soon. Given that Nvidia was one of the main companies that drove Intel out of the stand-alone graphics chip market, the chip giant must be keeping a wary eye on this new partnership. Research firm Jon Peddie Associates expects that 30 million integrated graphics chipsets will be sold next year.
The Aladdin TNT2 is sampling now and expected to be available in the fourth quarter this year. In 10,000 quantities the Aladdin TNT2 Northbridge with the M1535D Southbridge is priced at $33.