NVIDIA is back at it, but not where you might think. In the desktop market, NVIDIA does have some work to do, but there are still other markets, which we shouldn’t forget (they still make money). On the mobile graphics side, we have been disappointed with GeForce FX Go56X0 (NV31M), as the ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 shows a clear lead over its competitor (our coverage). Because mobile graphics is always slower, it often is reminiscent of mainstream desktop graphics, which is why we have ended up recommending the Radeon 9600 XT and Pro for desktop and their mobile brother. But enough of that, as we will dive into mobile graphics again soon...

The mobile market has developed into submarkets: high-end, thin and light, and ultraportable. With desktop replacement notebooks and Small Form Factor PCs becoming more popular, they are often resorting to a combination of mobile parts, which is why they can be considered a mix between the desktop and mobile side. The reason we are making a special note of these markets is because just a few days ago, NVIDIA launched nForce3 Go120 for the ultraportable market in tandem with Transmeta’s Efficeon processor. And by ultraportable, we don’t mean just something like an IBM X31, it seems NVIDIA’s plans are much loftier than that.

NVIDIA’s nForce3 Go150 was launched back at Computex, along with the rest of the nForce3 family. (For more information on nForce3 in the mainstream and high-end desktop market, read our nForce3 and nForce3 Pro coverage.) The nForce3 Go150 chipset is intended for desktop replacement notebook due to its use along with the Athlon64 and GeForce FX Go mobile graphics processors. (Something we are eagerly waiting to take a look at). While that focuses on the performance end, it doesn’t address the growing ultraportable/thin and light notebook market. This is exactly what nForce3 Go120 is supposed to do.

NVIDIA nForce3 Go120 – High Expectations

The nForce3 Go120 is focusing on the real estate issue that concerns ultraportable notebook designs. The chip is manufactured on a .15 micron process, like the higher end Go150, but has quite a small package: 22mm x 22mm. This makes it smaller than Intel’s ICH4 southbridge.

NVIDIA’s logic is that OEMs won’t have to use a northbridge and southbridge to design their ultraportable systems because the memory controller is now on the processor, in this case Transmeta’s Efficeon. The available saved space is supposed to make the nForce3 Go120 more tempting than Pentium-M solutions. There is some truth to this. While a northbridge isn’t necessary, an additional discrete graphics chip is needed, which so far as we know is going to be the GeForce4 420Go given the the target market.

Like the nForce3 Go150, the nForce3 Go120 supports ATA 133, but lacks Serial ATA and RAID support, which is perfectly appropriate since its intent is for ultraportable systems. The other specifications are very similar to the Go150 and the rest of the nForce3 family, but the nForce3 Go120 is optimized higher for low power consumption. NVIDIA tells us that an Efficeon system based on nForce3 Go120 + GeForce4 420Go will consume under 4W, while a Pentium-M based on i855GM + ICH4 consumes a little over 4.5W during Windows idle.

As we mentioned earlier, NVIDIA has some high expectations for this product. They suggested to us that OEMs could build PDAs that run with Windows XP Professional smoothly based on their chipset with the Efficeon processor. This is a high expectation, so far as no PDA we are aware of runs in this condition. (NVIDIA’s picture of a PDA running Windows XP Professional on the Go120 product page is just an artistic rendition.) The bandwidth of HyperTransport for this chip is limited at 1.6GB/s; much lower than that of the larger key nForce3 family members (nForce3 and nForce3 Go150 - 3.6GB/s).

We are very interested to see if they can stack up everything they claim. Bringing the functionality of a desktop system to fit in a pocket shirt comes with the expectation that there is a threshold for how low performance users will tolerate. This means that bringing the performance to run a Windows XP screensaver smoothly will also come with an expectation for battery life to last as long as typical systems.

Transmeta Efficeon – Partner through the good and the bad

Transmeta's last chipset partner was ALi, and we didn’t see success by any measure in the North American market. (Though, we hear of use overseas.) NVIDIA is definitely positioned much stronger than ALi, and has the ability to push their product in the marketplace with higher widespread acceptance. However, there is still much that remains to be seen. The Efficeon processor (a play on the word efficient) that was launched just a few days ago is supposed to be the successor to the Crusoe processor, which we saw in FIC’s SlateVision and PaceBook’s PaceBlade.

Transmeta made a name for themselves a few years back with the announcement of the Transmeta CPU, which promised high performance computing with low power consumption. The x86 compatible processor was to combine hardware and "code morphing" software to allow the VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word) Crusoe to understand x86 commands. The benefits: a smaller CPU package that consumed up to 70 percent less power than competing chips.

Transmeta CPUs have been used in portable computers for some time now and are the processor of choice for ultra-portable systems due to their low power consumption. The market for ultra-portable systems based on the Transmeta CPU seems to be limited to Tablet PCs and PDA-like systems with built in keyboards. The use of them in true ultra-portable notebooks, like the IBM X31, was almost non-existent. This is where Intel picked up with Centrino and was able to create a reasonable performance system with low power consumption.

Compared to Transmeta, the only competing solution a year or so ago to get Windows XP to display a screensaver smoothly was the Pentium III-M, which consumed a good deal of power and emitted a fairly large amount of heat. Centrino and specifically Pentium-M allowed the minimum threshold for performance to be hit and also was able to hit the power consumption and heat emissions that finally rivaled Crusoe.

Transmeta's new CPU makes everything more interesting, because it supposedly can work as the platform for a mainstream notebook. This implication would make it seem that it can competitively rival Pentium-M.

As you may recall, the Crusoe TM5800 (667MHz – 1.1GHz) includes 128K of L1 cache and 512K of 4-way set associative write back L2 cache. The chip also includes an integrated northbridge, providing DDR or SDR SDRAM support as well as a PCI controller and a southbridge interface. The new Efficeon TM8600 processor (1.1GHz) includes 192K of L1 cache and 1MB of 8-way set associative write back L2 cache. The new chip is also based on a .13 micron manufacturing process and includes an integrated northbridge, providing DDR support and AGP controller and a HyperTransport interface.

It is interesting to note that nForce3 Go was clearly designed as a derivative of nForce3 and therefore was originally meant for Athlon64. This is why nForce3 Go has an integrated AGP controller. But because Athlon64 and Efficeon have integrated northbridges and use HyperTransport as their external link, there are two AGP controllers between nForce3 Go120 and Efficeon.

Future versions of Efficeon processors are to be based on the .09 micron manufacturing process, which is expected to materialize sometime next year. In the news, Transmeta is touting their performance as 50% to 80% faster than the Crusoe processor. How much performance the Efficeon processor actually brings will need to wait till we get an in lab system.

ALi didn't gain much from the Transmeta relationship because the Crusoe didn't sell in large volumes. This time around, the success of NVIDIA's nForce3 Go120 is directly tied to Transmeta's new processor and vice versa. Though, NVIDIA will rely on Transmeta more heavily because there are other southbridge providers, such as ALi.

Conclusion

NVIDIA has some high expectations for their nForce3 Go120 chipset, which is directly tied to the success of the Transmeta Efficeon processor. Right now we are understandably skeptical for some of the mobile desktop plans that NVIDIA is touting and the performance that Transmeta is promoting. Their claim of a performance boost 50%+ over Transmeta’s Crusoe is definitely something that caught our interest.

The reason that Centrino and Pentium-M populate the mainstream mobile market is because of the ability to surpass the minimum performance needed to run Windows XP and still provide great battery life. There have been plenty of system vendors that have switched from Crusoe to Pentium-M because of this (i.e. HP/Compaq’s TC1000 Tablet PC).

When we talked with NVIDIA, one of their ideas to make their product (along with Transmeta’s Efficeon processor) more tempting is to focus on the real estate saved by nForce3 Go120 and Efficeon’s integrated northbridge. They pointed out that the use of an integrated northbridge (among other things) could allow OEMs to put a slim CD and or DVD drive in an ultraportable notebook. The suggestion of this for something like the Dell X300 or the IBM X31 is very tempting. However, ultraportable system designers are more keen on striping out every possible component that will not be practically needed while on the go. Since that addition typically falls outside this focus, we currently don’t see optical drives in ultraportable notebooks.

Traditionally, because optical drives aren’t in constant use; anything that can save space is usually taken full advantage of in ultraportable system designs that range from quasi-large PDAs to ultraportable notebooks. (NVIDIA is actually talking about Go120 based systems with dimensions as small as 3.3" x 6.1".) If space is saved by any means, it is more likely the extra space will be used to reduce the overall size of the system or increase the battery capacity.

With Dothan (Centrino's sucessor) on the horizon, the mobile industry isn’t without news to talk about. AMD shouldn’t be too far off from announcing mobile news, which we will share when the time comes. Meanwhile, if Transmeta’s Efficeon can provide the performance they are suggesting, Intel may see a competitive side of Transmeta that they haven’t had to deal with yet. But then again, this still depends on the performance and, just as important, a competitive price tag.