NVIDIA and HP shook up the PC market today with the introduction of a new 11.6-inch netbook that delivers many of the capabilities of a full-sized notebook. The HP Mini 311 takes advantage of NVIDIA ION graphics to deliver a big visual experience with HD video, accelerated video editing, and support for casual gaming in a small, sleek package.

NVIDIA ION is a small but powerful graphics processing unit (GPU) that works together with a low-power CPU to generate exceptional performance for compact, energy-efficient systems. By processing data-intensive applications in parallel with the CPU, ION-based netbooks offer many of the same capabilities of full-sized notebooks including support for all versions of Microsoft Windows. ION’s highly-integrated, energy-saving design delivers the extended battery life mobile customers demand.

The Mini 311 ships with Windows XP and features an 11.6-inch diagonal LED display available in high-definition 1366 x 768 resolution. It includes HDMI and VGA video connectors to output video up to 1080p onto a larger screen like an HDTV. The Mini also includes ArcSoft SimHD, which instantly converts most standard-definition video to near high-definition quality. SimHD uses the NVIDIA® CUDA™ parallel computing architecture present on NVIDIA GPUs to perform this upscaling faster than on a CPU.

In addition to the HP Mini 311, more than 50 other ION-based products are scheduled for release this year. ION graphics deliver a premium experience in small, low-powered PCs with support for:

All versions of Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7
Outstanding HD video including 1080p
Battery life that is comparable with other netbooks
Stunning HD video through an external monitor via HDMI
Mainstream games including Spore, Ice Age, and Wall-E
Hardware acceleration for NVIDIA® CUDA™-based applications such as vReveal, Badaboom, SimHD plug-in for Total Media Theater, and Super LoiLoScope
24-bit 8-channel LPCM uncompressed audio through HDMI