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Written by Hayden Tennent
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Friday, 25 April 2008 19:57 |
Nvidia is expected to purchase its last remaining independent physics competitor Ageia. Further information from Nvidia is expected to be provided when the company releases its quarterly earnings on February 13.
Ageia develops and sells a discrete add on physics card (containing a PhyX Physics Processing Unit or PPU) which allows complex calculations to be performed by the unit rather than burdening the main CPU with this task. The idea behind this is that the main CPU can be freed for other tasks such as artificial intelligence and so on. The separate PPU will offload those performance-limiting physics calculations from the CPU on to the dedicated card.
Ageia describes their flagship product below:
"Its flagship solution, AGEIA PhysX, is the world's first dedicated physics engine and physics processor to bridge the gap between static virtual worlds and responsive unscripted physical reality. AGEIA PhysX allows developers to use active physics-based environments for a truly realistic entertainment experience."
I expect that Nvidia will integrate the Ageia physics technology into their current line of graphics cards.
Source: The Register, Ageia
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