We've learned that most Ions that will ship in 2009 will remain in current 55nm manufacturing process. Ion 2 or Ion refresh chipset in 40nm should come shortly before the year's end and of course it should represent a better version of the original MCP79 chip.

Intel will release its Pineview DC, a dual-core version of new Atom CPU with IGP inside of the CPU, and Nvidia will release a faster,  40nm version of its next gen Ion chip. We expect that Nvidia should have its Ion 2 in late 2009, probably Q4 2009, and to be in time for the Pineview dual-core launch in Q4 2009 and Pineview single-core launch in Q1 2010.

Naturally, since the chip is smaller you can expect more shaders and faster performance at the same or lower TDP.  We are still confused about why Intel allowed Nvidia to interconnects Ion and next generation Ion on Pineview, next generation Atom, but this might be the first bury the hatchet and a serious sign of a truce between Nvidia and Intel.