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NVIDIA to Acquire AGEIA Technologies -- PhysX PPU on Future GeForceGPUs ?
http://www.nvidia.com/object/io_1202161567170.html
NVIDIA to Acquire AGEIA Technologies PhysX on GeForce Will Bring Amazing Physics Dynamics to Millions of Gamers FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SANTA CLARA, CA -- FEBRUARY 4, 2008--NVIDIA the world leader in visual computing technologies and the inventor of the GPU, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire AGEIA Technologies, Inc., the industry leader in gaming physics technology. AGEIA's PhysX software is widely adopted with more than 140 PhysX- based games shipping or in development on Sony Playstation3, Microsoft XBOX 360, Nintendo Wii and Gaming PCs. AGEIA physics software is pervasive with over 10,000 registered and active users of the PhysX SDK. "The AGEIA team is world class, and is passionate about the same thing we are--creating the most amazing and captivating game experiences," stated Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of NVIDIA. "By combining the teams that created the world's most pervasive GPU and physics engine brands, we can now bring GeForce(R)-accelerated PhysX to hundreds of millions of gamers around the world." "NVIDIA is the perfect fit for us. They have the world's best parallel computing technology and are the thought leaders in GPUs and gaming. We are united by a common culture based on a passion for innovating and driving the consumer experience," said Manju Hegde, co-founder and CEO of AGEIA. Like graphics, physics processing is made up of millions of parallel computations. The NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) 8800GT GPU, with its 128 processors, can process parallel applications up to two orders of magnitude faster than a dual or quad-core CPU. "The computer industry is moving towards a heterogeneous computing model, combining a flexible CPU and a massively parallel processor like the GPU to perform computationally intensive applications like real-time computer graphics," continued Mr. Huang. "NVIDIA's CUDA(tm) technology, which is rapidly becoming the most pervasive parallel programming environment in history, broadens the parallel processing world to hundreds of applications desperate for a giant step in computational performance. Applications such as physics, computer vision, and video/image processing are enabled through CUDA and heterogeneous computing." AGEIA was founded in 2002 and has offices in Santa Clara, CA; St. Louis, MO; Zurich, Switzerland; and Beijing, China. The acquisition remains subject to customary closing conditions. More details about the acquisition will be provided during NVIDIA's quarterly conference call, to be held on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 at 2:00 PM, Pacific Time. The Company's prepared remarks will be followed by a question and answer period, which will be limited to questions from financial analysts and institutional investors. To listen to the conference call, please dial 212-231-2901; no password is required. The conference call will also be webcast live (listen- only mode) at the following Web sites: www.nvidia.com and www.streetevents.com. Replay of the conference call will be available via telephone by calling 800-633-8284 (or 402-977-9140), passcode 21354792, until February 20, 2008. The webcast will be recorded and available for replay until the company's conference call to discuss its financial results for its first quarter, fiscal 2009. About AGEIA AGEIA Technologies, Inc., is the industry leader in gaming physics technology. AGEIA's PhysX software is widely adopted with more than 140 PhysX-based games shipping or in development on Sony Playstation3, Microsoft XBOX 360, Nintendo Wii and Gaming PCs. AGEIA physics software is pervasive with over 10,000 registered and active users of the PhysX SDK. AGEIA is also credited with developing the world's first dedicated hardware physics processor, the AGEIA PhysX processor. The company, headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., is privately-held. For more information visit http://www.ageia.com. About NVIDIA NVIDIA is the world leader in visual computing technologies and the inventor of the GPU, a high-performance processor which generates breathtaking, interactive graphics on workstations, personal computers, game consoles, and mobile devices. NVIDIA serves the entertainment and consumer market with its GeForce(R) products, the professional design and visualization market with its Quadro(R) products, and the high-performance computing market with its Tesla(tm) products. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif. and has offices throughout Asia, Europe, and the Americas. For more information, visit www.nvidia.com. ___________________________________________ http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multime...rocessors.html Nvidia Purchases Developer of Dedicated Physics Processors. Ageia Gets Acquired by Nvidia Corp. by Anton Shilov [ 02/04/2008 | 03:14 PM ] Ageia Technologies, the developer of dedicated physics processing units (PPUs), said on Monday that it was taken over by Nvidia Corp., the world's largest supplier of discrete graphics processors. The move will allow Nvidia to offer better physics support with its GeForce graphics chips in games that can take advantage of Ageia PhysX PPUs. "Nvidia is the perfect fit for us. They have the world's best parallel computing technology and are the thought leaders in GPUs and gaming. We are united by a common culture based on a passion for innovating and driving the consumer experience," said Manju Hegde, co-founder and chief executive of Ageia. Nvidia Acquires Ageia in Response to Intel-Havok Deal Back in 2007 the world's largest manufacturer of x86 central processing units (CPUs), Intel Corp., acquired Havok, a developer of technology that allows physics to be processed on GPUs. The consequence of the takeover was abandoning the development of Havok FX, a physics middleware that relies on graphics chips' stream processors to process physics. Intel Corp. is currently the largest supplier of graphics adapters through its core-logic chipsets with built-in graphics cores, but Intel at this point does not supply discrete GPUs, which computational power is required for physics effects processing. For that reason, it was relatively important for Intel to ensure that Havok FX - potentially, a very popular middleware - does not make it to the market, as in the opposite scenario the importance of a high-end CPU inside a personal computer for video gaming would decrease. However, the acquisition of Havok was a particularly unpleasant situation for Nvidia, who has been claiming that its GeForce graphics chips could process physics in video games for several years and which is interested in boosting importance of high-end discrete graphics processors. The acquisition of Ageia will almost certainly enable Nvidia to accelerate physics in video games using Ageia's middle-ware, which means that Nvidia GeForce graphics cards will be able to display higher quality physics effects in titles that take advantage of Ageia PhysX PPU. The development of the latter will most likely be halted. It should be noted that both graphics and physics processing requires massively-parallel processing engines, meaning that there is hardly a difference for end-user or game developer whether physics effects are computed on a CPU, PPU or GPU. "The Ageia team is world class, and is passionate about the same thing we are - creating the most amazing and captivating game experiences. By combining the teams that created the world's most pervasive GPU and physics engine brands, we can now bring GeForce-accelerated PhysX to hundreds of millions of gamers around the world," stated Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive of Nvidia. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. No Immediate Benefits Ageia's PhysX is the world's first physics processing unit (PPU), which offloads software physics processing from central processing units and graphics processing units to it. The architecture of the PhysX PPU is tailored for multi-threaded processing of vertexes, which allows game creators to develop detailed, soft and precise animation and simulation of movements, hair, clothing, liquids, fluids and other. To take advantage of advanced capabilities the PhysX has, game developers have to create games using Novodex SDK supplied by Ageia, which requires some additional effort from them. Currently there are almost no games that can take advantage of Ageia PhysX, therefore, neither Nvidia, nor users with Nvidia GeForce hardware will benefit from the acquisition in the short term. However, the company may benefit in longer term, provided that Ageia PhysX becomes an open standard. GPU Physics Still Alive? Following the acquisition of Havok by Intel actual deployment of a Havok-developed physics engine for video games that could take advantage of GPUs is under a big question mark, said Richard Huddy, developer relations chief at Advanced Micro Devices, last November. According to Richard Huddy, who joined AMD when it acquired graphics chip company ATI Technologies back in 2006, Havok FX is unlikely to be released at all or power many video games. While AMD admits that there are some games on the horizon that can compute physics effects on GPUs, it is highly unlikely that there will be a significant number of them, unless comprehensive tools for GPU physics are available. In fact, by acquiring Ageia, Nvidia is likely to make those tools available after some time needed for their development. Given that Ageia PhysX SDK (software development kit) is used to create games for all three modern video game consoles - Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3 - game developers may gladly jump on the bandwagon and make use of "GeForce-accelerated PhysX" when it comes to PC versions of their games. Nevertheless, physics processing on GPUs may get a boost in popularity when Microsoft releases its DirectX 11, which is projected to support additional features that will provide new opportunities for games developers. In fact, Microsoft already promised Direct Physics application programming interface (API) [which was projected to rely on GPU as well] sometime back, but not actual product has yet been released. When and if Microsoft releases its Direct Physics, it will inevitably compete against Nvidia-owned Ageia PhysX technology. _____________________________________________ http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardwar...5/006213.shtml NVIDIA To Buy AGEIA Posted by kdawson on Monday February 04, @07:33PM from the it's-all-physics dept. The two companies announced today that NVIDIA will acquire PhysX maker AGEIA; terms were not disclosed. The Daily Tech is one of the few covering the news to go much beyond the press release, mentioning that AMD considered buying AGEIA last November but passed, and that the combination positions NVIDIA to compete with Intel on a second front, beyond the GPU -- as Intel purchased AGEIA competitor Havok last September. While NVIDIA talked about supporting the PhysX engine on their GPUs, it's not clear whether AGEIA's hardware-based physics accelerator will play any part in that. AMD declared GPU physics dead last year, but NVIDIA at least presumably begs to differ. The coverage over at PC Perspectives goes into more depth on what the acquisition portends for the future of physics, on the GPU or elsewhere __________________ http://www.gamespot.com/news/6185534.html Nvidia acquiring Ageia GPU giant gobbles up physics chipmaker for undisclosed sum. By Tom Magrino, GameSpot Posted Feb 4, 2008 4:03 pm PT With the dominance of its GeForce 8 series in the PC gaming circuit and the resurgence of the PlayStation 3 in the console hardware race, Nvidia is anything but strapped for cash. Reporting on its third- quarter financials in November, the Silicon Valley-based graphics chipmaker reported its first-ever billion-dollar quarter, posting revenues that eclipsed an equally strong second quarter that saw a three-for-two stock split. Today, the cash-flush semiconductor company announced it would be biting off a larger chunk of the gaming market with the purchase of physics chipmaker Ageia. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and the buyout remains subject to pending regulatory approval and closing conditions. Ageia debuted the world's first dedicated physics processor in 2006. The chip is designed to handle real-time physics calculations that allow for more impressive and diverse visual effects. In addition to PC titles, Ageia's PhysX software is employed in the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii. __________________ http://www.pcper.com/comments.php?nid=5107 NVIDIA and AGEIA: together for the first time Mon, Feb 04, 2008 - 07:03 PM Ryan Shrout | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Graphics Card Sure, when AGEIA was first seen on the um, scene, NVIDIA countered their claims of physics acceleration with their own partnership with Havok. Then, Intel bought Havok. Well, then, what's a graphics giant to do? If you're AMD apparently the answer is "pass" but if you're NVIDIA the answer is "buy the remaining physics software company". Today NVIDIA announced that they were going to acquire AGEIA and their PhysX technology, but details are going to be sparse until NVIDIA's financial call later in the week. That doesn't keep us from debating on what will happen in the world of accelerated physics after this acquisition though, so check out our quick editorial and see what we thing might happen. NVIDIA's developer relations are incredibly strong, and there are some very talented programmers involved in the program. Leveraging some of that programming power towards PhysX would likely be very helpful. NVIDIA would be much more aggressive in selling the underlying physics software to its gaming partners as well. Within the next few months we would see a lot more support for Ageia, perhaps not so much in how well the software works, but rather how many more game developers will adopt it and support it. Ageia will likely start out as its own division within NVIDIA, but perhaps over time they will migrate it under one of the broader divisions. Details are sketchy at the moment, but until NVIDIA is able to dig deeper into the architecture of the Ageia products, they will wait to see where it would best be used. With NVIDIA looking to release more general processors, the technology that Ageia brings could fit very well in with their future plans. __________________ http://www.techspot.com/news/28880-n...ire-ageia.html Nvidia announces plans to acquire Ageia By Justin Mann, TechSpot.com Published: February 4, 2008, 5:33 PM EST Recently commented stories Microsoft warns users against using vLite (13) Crytek brings CryEngine 2 to PS3 and Xbox 360 (6) MySpace and Facebook struck by security flaw (3) Dell to close call center and layoff 900 (3) Blog: How to run Windows Live Messenger on Windows XP x64 and Server 2003 (2) Ageia has faced some tough times recently. Their technology, while admirable, really came at a time too soon and was in a format that didn't really work with the gaming market as it was. And while they probably tried to stave off a takeover, even going so far as to say it won't happen, Nvidia announced plans today to acquire Ageia. They'll be taking over the infamous PhysX platform, software and hardware, buying the company for an as of yet undisclosed sum. Ageia seems to be upbeat about the situation, saying that Nvidia is a "perfect fit" for them. They might be right, and with Nvidia's current dominant position in the GPU market it is hard to go wrong. Perhaps PhysX will have a good future afterall. You can read the full press release at Nvidia's site. __________________________________________________ ______________________ Nvidia set to acquire Ageia Author: Tim Smalley Published: 4th February 2008 Comments (6) Email to a friend Digg Nvidia has announced its intention to acquire Ageia Technologies after signing a definitive agreement with the gaming physics specialists. Nvidia has announced its intention to acquire Ageia Technologies after signing a definitive agreement with the gaming physics specialists. In a shock announcement just a few moments ago, Nvidia has revealed that it has signed an agreement to acquire Ageia Technologies--the company that raised the awareness of in-game physics with the launch of the PhysX physics processing unit in 2005--for an undisclosed sum. Details are very slim on the ground at the moment, but Nvidia says that more information on the acquisition will be disclosed during the company's quarterly earnings call on February 13th at 10:00PM GMT. Jen-Hsun Huang, Nvidia's president and CEO, hinted at bringing "GeForce-accelerated PhysX to hundreds of millions of gamers around the world" in the press release just issued. "The computer industry is moving towards a heterogeneous computing model, combining a flexible CPU and a massively parallel processor like the GPU to perform computationally intensive applications like real-time computer graphics," claimed Huang. "Nvidia's CUDA technology, which is rapidly becoming the most pervasive parallel programming environment in history, broadens the parallel processing world to hundreds of applications desperate for a giant step in computational performance," Huang said. "Applications such as physics, computer vision, and video/image processing are enabled through CUDA and heterogeneous computing." The acquisition, Nvidia says, is still subject to customary closing conditions, but we expect this to go through fairly quickly. I'm not quite sure what to think at the moment, as Ageia was a company almost waiting to be acquired by a bigger fish. That said, the prospects of on-GPU physics is an interesting one when you consider the fact that both ATI and Nvidia blew a lot of GPU-physics induced hot air in 2005. Back in September, Intel announced that it had bought Havok--the industry's leading physics middleware developer--so now that Nvidia is set to acquire Ageia, where does that leave AMD? ______________________________________ http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/s...4/daily18.html Nvidia to buy gaming physics company Ageia Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal Nvidia Corp. said Monday it agreed to acquire Ageia Technologies Inc., which focuses on gaming physics technology. Santa Clara-based Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) did not disclose financial or other details about the acquisition. Ageia makes software that is used in games from Sony Playstation 3, Microsoft XBOX 360, Nintendo Wii and Gaming PCs. "The Ageia team is world class, and is passionate about the same thing we are -- creating the most amazing and captivating game experiences," said Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. "By combining the teams that created the world's most pervasive GPU and physics engine brands, we can now bring GeForce-accelerated PhysX to hundreds of millions of gamers around the world." Ageia was founded in 2002 and has offices in Santa Clara, St. Louis, Zurich, Switzerland; and Beijing, China. The acquisition remains subject to customary closing conditions. Ageia is privately held, with major investors that include Chicago- based Apex Venture Partners and CID Equity Partners, Foster City-based BA Venture Partners, HIG Ventures, which has an office in San Francisco; Granite Global Ventures, which has an office in Menlo Park; and VentureTech Alliance, which has an office in San Jose. |
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NVIDIA to Acquire AGEIA Technologies -- PhysX PPU on Future GeForce GPUs ?
sprite scaler writes:
SANTA CLARA, CA -- FEBRUARY 4, 2008--NVIDIA the world leader in visual computing technologies and the inventor of the GPU, today announced Geez, I know that press releases are 90% meaning-free bullcrap, but "inventor of the GPU"?!? -Miles -- Omochiroi! |
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NVIDIA to Acquire AGEIA Technologies -- PhysX PPU on Future GeForce GPUs ?
Back in the Geforce1 days, nVidia's marketing dept was the first to brand
its graphics chip a "GPU". Of course, to keep up, ATi subsequently "invented" the VPU. I think video card marketing has matured a bit since the days of the Hercules Terminator Beast... -- "War is the continuation of politics by other means. It can therefore be said that politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed." "Miles Bader" wrote in message ... sprite scaler writes: SANTA CLARA, CA -- FEBRUARY 4, 2008--NVIDIA the world leader in visual computing technologies and the inventor of the GPU, today announced Geez, I know that press releases are 90% meaning-free bullcrap, but "inventor of the GPU"?!? -Miles |
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NVIDIA to Acquire AGEIA Technologies -- PhysX PPU on Future GeForce GPUs ?
On Mon, 4 Feb 2008 20:43:11 -0500, "First of One"
wrote: Back in the Geforce1 days, nVidia's marketing dept was the first to brand its graphics chip a "GPU". Of course, to keep up, ATi subsequently "invented" the VPU. I think video card marketing has matured a bit since the days of the Hercules Terminator Beast... As evidenced by new graphics cards with pictures of stippers and lunatics on them. |
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NVIDIA to Acquire AGEIA Technologies -- PhysX PPU on FutureGeForce GPUs ?
On Feb 4, 7:05 pm, Miles Bader wrote:
sprite scaler writes: SANTA CLARA, CA -- FEBRUARY 4, 2008--NVIDIA the world leader in visual computing technologies and the inventor of the GPU, today announced Geez, I know that press releases are 90% meaning-free bullcrap, but "inventor of the GPU"?!? -Miles -- Omochiroi! I absolutely agree with your questioning Nvidia as "inventor of the GPU". Nvidia invented their definition of the GPU. Their only "leg to stand on" so to speak, is that they were the first to introduce a *consumer* 3D graphics chip with on-chip geometry processor / T&L. There were professional / industrial / arcade / etc. graphics cards/boards with on-board polygon processors / geometry engines / T&L since the early to mid 1990s (probably in the 80s even). It's not unlike say, 3Dfx before them claiming they invented desktop 3D graphics. Yeah I am sorry I didn't edit-out the bullcrap. |
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NVIDIA to Acquire AGEIA Technologies -- PhysX PPU on FutureGeForce GPUs ?
sprite scaler wrote:
On Feb 4, 7:05 pm, Miles Bader wrote: sprite scaler writes: SANTA CLARA, CA -- FEBRUARY 4, 2008--NVIDIA the world leader in visual computing technologies and the inventor of the GPU, today announced Geez, I know that press releases are 90% meaning-free bullcrap, but "inventor of the GPU"?!? -Miles -- Omochiroi! I absolutely agree with your questioning Nvidia as "inventor of the GPU". Nvidia invented their definition of the GPU. Their only "leg to stand on" so to speak, is that they were the first to introduce a *consumer* 3D graphics chip with on-chip geometry processor / T&L. There were professional / industrial / arcade / etc. graphics cards/boards with on-board polygon processors / geometry engines / T&L since the early to mid 1990s (probably in the 80s even). It's not unlike say, 3Dfx before them claiming they invented desktop 3D graphics. Yeah I am sorry I didn't edit-out the bullcrap. I'll go further and give the credit to Jim Clark of SGI way back in 1982. Their chip had the first geometry set up engine, which is the essence of what we call 3D graphics. The programming language of those early SGI chips was polished and revised and is in use still today, but we know it as OpenGL. If Nvidia wishes to lay claim of "inventor of the GPU" they might be referring us to their legal department, whereas holders of the defunct 3Dfx intellectual property patents (3Dfx was SGI's and the consumer markets love-child), they might have a stamped certificate that bestows that title on their business indirectly. Somewhat like buying an Academy Award on ebay. |
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