Whatever Intel, nVidia and AMD might want us to believe, on mobile graphics chips are mostly very disappointing. Being able to buy an external card that can improve this situation is a temptation and a proposal that Fujitsu Siemens, according to leaked slides found by NotebookReview, is preparing to offer with the AMILO Graphics Booster.

As for the Asus XG Station (which has not yet surfaced) GraphicsBooster is intended to connect a notebook to provide graphics grunt when needed (a 470 percent improvement apparently), while allowing the system falling back on more energy-efficient internal GPU otherwise.

Fujitsu says that, when connected to the device allows three products, one DVI and HDMI port on the external box and that provided by the computer itself - assuming one VGA port on a notebook.

It is allegedly based on a previously unknown AMD ATI development called XGP technology. I guess that the acronym stands for something along the lines of “external Graphics Port” - companies are generally predictable as that. Quite how the device is connected is not detailed, but as ExpressCard is the only link capable of providing the necessary bandwidth is as good a guess as any.

The price is not mentioned and it is not quite clear whether Fujitsu Siemens will GraphicsBooster confined to its own systems only, since the leak of information is somewhat ambiguous. But, with availability scheduled for next week, at least we will not have to wait too long to find out. Could he perhaps succeed where Asus manifestly failed?