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nVidia Announces MXM for Notebooks

Posted by simoniker on from the mmm dept.

Giant_Panda writes "NVIDIA just announced a new mobile graphics interface for PCI Express based notebooks (PR here). NVIDIA is calling the interface MXM (Mobile PCI eXpress Module), and they seem to have the support of the Taiwanese notebook ODMs on this one. HotHardware has a few pictures and details on the technology - it looks like MXM is a royalty-free standard too, so other mobile GPU manufactures like ATi may even make MXM modules. (More MXM Info - HardOCP, Tweaktown)"

12 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Upgrade video card! by ajiva · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Will this let me swap out the video card in my (future) laptop? That would definitly increase laptop life...

    1. Re:Upgrade video card! by SilentChris · · Score: 5, Informative

      You can already do this (big red letters on this page).

  2. Nice... er, RAM modules! by Txiasaeia · · Score: 5, Funny

    Mmmm... Maxim with notebooks... wait, huh? What the hell? I clicked on the "few pictures and details" links and all it comes up with are shots of freaking computers!

    --
    Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
  3. MXM looks exactly like.... by AciDive · · Score: 5, Informative

    MXM looks exactly like AlienWares Do-It-Yourself Upgradeable Mobile Graphics Technology.

    --
    "Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect." Linus Torvalds
  4. MXM... by I_Love_Pocky! · · Score: 5, Funny

    This would be sweet on a machine with MMX running XMMS.

  5. Re:Ten Leading Notebook Manufacturers by obsid1an · · Score: 5, Informative
    From The Register:

    "Nvidia said it had already won the backing of Far Eastern ODMs like Quanta, Wistron, FIC, Uniwill, Clevo, AOpen, Tatung, Arima, Asustek and Mitac, all of whom have said they will offer MXM-based notebooks. Since these ten already account for many of the world's name and no-name notebooks, MXM is likely to grow by stealth, becoming a de facto standard."

  6. OMGOMG!1~~ by Leffe · · Score: 5, Funny

    • One notebook design, sold into many notebook products
    • One notebook design that can use any graphics solution, from any vendor

    • One notebook to rule them all
  7. power consumtion by Jotaigna · · Score: 4, Insightful

    those desktop graphic card giants should learn something about this little fella.I dont see extra hard drive power plugs or a 480W power source.

    --
    "The quality of life is inversely proportional to the number of keys on your keyring."
  8. Missed opportunity? by Ianoo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I won't deny this is a great idea for graphics, but surely with a little more work, adding internal connectors for communications and audio, this could be turned into a generalised standard that would finally replace those horrendous semi-proprietary mini-PCI cards you find inside laptops?

    Imagine the possible combinations of devices you could fit into a laptop with two of these slots accessible externally so they could specify their own connectors, or alternatively wired up on the motherboard to USB, FireWire, RJ-45, RJ-12, a few Jack plugs and the video ports on the outside of the macine, all available through a 250-pin connector?

    1. Re:Missed opportunity? by sonpal · · Score: 5, Insightful
      ... those horrendous semi-proprietary mini-PCI cards...

      Mini-PCI is an open standard, just like PCI. You even buy the specifications from the same place, the PCI SIG. What nVidia is doing is pre-empting what the PCI SIG will eventually come out with, perhaps in the hopes that the PCI SIG will adopt their standard as the official PCI graphics standard for laptops.

      If a couple of big players like Dell and Toshiba adopt it for their notebooks, this will most likely become the standard.

      Someone else on this thread added that CardBus does exactly what you are asking for. I would also like to add that audio capabilities should be absorbed into the video card anyway so that you can send it a single datastream and get both video and audio out, so you don't need to add audio capabilities to the bus.

  9. ITX? by 91degrees · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This would be nice on an ITX machine. Not many of them have upgradeably graphics (None of the quiet ones AFAIK). Lack of graphics upgradability has been putting me off buying one.

  10. What does everyone have against the letter 'E'? by Zen+Programmer · · Score: 4, Funny

    What does everyone hvae against (capitalizing) the letter 'E'?

    I guess in nVidia's case it's not just the letter 'E' that they subjugate for the more favored 'X' (eXpress), since they also choose 'V' over 'N' in their name (nVidia).

    I guess it's just so much cooler for stuff to be eXtreme or eXpress, rather than Extreme or Express. Bah, stupid marketing.