First Nvidia Ion Nettop is the Acer AspireRevo

By Marcus Yam
published

Acer is the first out of the gate with a nettop based off of Nvidia’s Ion chipset design.

Nvidia told us last week to expect an Ion-based system to be shipping sometime this quarter. Now just a week later, Acer debuts the AspireRevo, the first commercial nettop based on the Nvidia Ion.

"The AspireRevo is small and quiet enough to go anywhere. … It's perfectly suited for the living room, because Nvidia Ion provides a brilliant graphics experience with digital photos, watching video, and playing family-friendly games," said Gianpiero Morbello, corporate vice president of marketing for Acer.

The HDMI output and low power, low noise nature of the AspireRevo makes it an affordable HTPC consideration for those looking for a quick drop-in solution. One potential worry point is that our reference Ion from Nvidia had an optical audio out, but we can't seem to spot one on the AspireRevo. As far as we know, the GeForce 9400M can't pass audio out through HDMI. With dimensions measuring 7.1-inches square and 1.2-inches thick, it’s sleek enough.

"The Acer AspireRevo with our new Nvidia Ion GPU is so small and powerful it's unbelievable," said Dan Vivoli, senior vice president of marketing at Nvidia.

The so-called ‘Ion GPU’ Vivoli is referring to is the GeForce 9400M chipset that’s found in the current generation iMac, Mac Mini, MacBook and select PC notebooks. What makes the 9400M stand out on the Ion is the wings it grants the modest Atom processor to play back high-definition content and some light 3D gaming.

"Watch Blu-ray movies and HD movie trailers, or clean up jerky, dim cell phone videos for internet streaming. This is the perfect PC for today's consumers," Vivoli added.

We won’t know how much Acer’s nettop deviates from the Nvidia Ion reference platform, but so far it looks very similar. Acer hasn’t revealed a release date or pricing, but we’ll keep you posted.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
27 Comments Comment from the forums
  • scook9
    so you mention atom......but does this use it or the Via Nano? I ask because i have not yet heard the outcome of the legal battle between Nvidia and Intel yet. And does this have built in wireless and an optical drive (hopefully a blu ray option)? Without these features the chipset is overkill if only playing SD content, and the computer as a whole is nearly useless without wireless. And is Nvidia really that stupid that they didnt make their 9400m capable of passing sound via hdmi?
    Reply
  • mcnuggetofdeath
    its got an atom n230 as far as i know.
    Reply
  • jsloan
    how much? looks like mac mini has a friend...
    Reply
  • scook9
    well, the mac mini has an optical drive, lets wait and see what this does and doesnt have first.
    Reply
  • This one uses the Atom. The Atom is still a normal processor.The legal issues where with the atom based CPU with integrated graphics on chip, and perhaps later on die.

    This is an amazing piece of pc! I would want one, only if it's cheap enough!
    The only issues I might have, is that the majority of this board is not fabricated on a 45nm die (or less) but 65nm.
    Meaning as soon as a 45nm variant will become available, it'll use 30% less energy for the same performance.
    Also, the used graphics processor has old graphics technology (3years or something) onboard.

    I fear this pc will lack USB ports. From what I can see on the picture, and guess, the device must have about 4 USB ports, which is way too less if you already use 2 for keyboard and mouse!

    5 or 6 would be good, eg:
    Keyb,mouse, printer, Ext.DVD-ROM, Ext. HD, semi-analog/digital joypad for games.

    The size is amazing,and I hope Nvidia equipped it with some CUDA technology.
    If so, then I hope the price will be low enough to compete with Asus' EeeBOX, and it will be a winner!
    Reply
  • Humans think
    Regardless of economic crisis I would buy it if:

    1) It has an analog 5.1 output plus optical out (perhaps ALC889A or better)
    2) It has at least 802.11g
    3) Can effectively play 1080p .264

    Reply
  • Humans think
    I am seeking for a nettop to buy for my living room but it lacks two things I really require from such a device:

    1) At least analog 5.1 output and optical out (I it so hard to incorporate the ALC889A?)
    2) From my experience this hardware can not play some of the 1080p videos encoded in .264

    Although I usually agree with you ProDigit80 I think 5-6 usb ports would be an overkill for the living-room. Most wireless keyboards and mouse come with a single port, you can always attach a hub to extend the connectivity and the radius for wired joypads, and I wouldn't try placing the printer in the living room. Ext. Bluray would make great sense. If you see it as a small desktop replacement then of course you are right :P
    Reply
  • foxyg
    Is this a PC, does it run windows? Play windows game? I would imaging a 9400 can't really play something serious.
    Reply
  • 5.1 output would make a lot of sense when using it as a HD video box!
    However, looking at the side it shows only 1 line (headphones) out, and one line/mic in.
    Meaning you'll probably have to do with a 2.1 here.

    Not everyone wants to use this box for HD video; some will as a desktop replacement box, or as a gaming console/Wii variant for their son/daughter.
    You could even use it for the office, as replacement desktops!
    Especially if it's mainly used to input data in like MSOffice, or SAP!

    I myself don't like wireless keyb/mouse. First off you need to install drivers that are not always compatible to any OS.
    Second there's the wireless rays (just like a cellphone or bluetooth headset) that could give you cancer.

    It you specifically want wireless internet, you could plug in a Wifi USB dongle in one of the ports. Should cost you less than $25.

    I just hope it comes with a LAN. If it could come with Wireless N, that'd be nice too!
    Reply
  • ow,and it DOES decode 1080 mp4 and DivX/XviD !
    It does not decode blueray; the Atom processor is too slow to decode the blueray encryption, but the Nano platform is technically capable to decode a non-encrypted blueray movie (eg: copied/reconverted blueray movie)
    Reply