Nvidia’s Mobile PCI Express Module (MXM) specification
Nvidia has made a bold stance on the future of graphics cards for mobile devices. Their new MXM specification will allow mobile PC owners to upgrade their graphics card with relative ease. The standard will also apply to other classes of computers potentially making it easier for all to upgrade their graphics abilities. Three classes have thus far been defined, MXM I geared toward laptops, MXM II to mainstream machines and MXM III for desktop replacements.
Nvidia said it was opening up the MXM spec. to allow other chip vendors and any number of notebook vendors to support the initiative. Beyond the association with Nvidia, it’s hard to see why they wouldn’t. Notebooks are taking an ever greater share of the PC market, and without MXM or something like it, there’s unlikely ever to be much in the way of a mobile graphics after-market.
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.
Nvidia claims that their next generation of GeForce Go mobile chips, version 6, will be on MXM add-in cards. I suppose this means we should be seeing product emerging rather quickly.