A few weeks ago, Nvidia caused a bit of a stir leading up to CES when they mentioned on their blog a new technology called “Optimus”, but gave no details. XbitLabs has gotten some inside info about it, and writes it up:
Nvidia Optimus technology allows the system to automatically switch between discrete and integrated graphics cores so that to take advantage of high-performance standalone graphics processing unit (GPU) and keep battery life at maximum level while utilizing integrated graphics processor (IGP). The switching will be completely seamless for the end-users, granted, Microsoft Windows 7 operating system can allow two graphics drivers to be installed at once.
NVidia has been doing this for a while as Hybrid SLI, but this new technology promises to do it better. An interesting solution to in-CPU graphics processors, this allows them to offer long-battery life with a low-end mobile GPU, and superior performance with a high-end GPU all on the same system.
via Nvidia to Re-Introduce Hybrid SLI Under Optimus Brand-Name – X-bit labs.
