Nvidia may be duking it out with Intel right now, but one company they are apparently on good terms with is Via. CEO Jen-Jsun Huang has recently revealed that Nvidia is working with Via to develop motherboards based around the Ion platform which can make use of Via's Nano processors. The deal, which apparently was being negotiated as long as a year ago, will come to fruition with a hardware release scheduled for sometime this year. The development could be going towards netbook manufacture, but also may be destined for low-cost desktop PCs.

This may be an “alternative” strategy for Nvidia, assuming that things do not go well with Intel. If they prefer not to couple Atom CPUs with their Ion platform, Via is the next best bet for a low-power CPU. Via has also been looking for every opportunity they can to get the Nano out there, and coupling with a hotly anticipated platform is exactly what they need. Nvidia still has Atom-based platforms due, which will most likely launch first.