Published in Graphics

Ageia talks to Fudzilla after acquisition

by on06 February 2008

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Interview: Life with Nvidia


We were fortunate enough to take a moment of a time from Dan Forster, PR and Marketing Manager for Ageia, and this is what he shared with us.

1. So Nvidia acquired Ageia. What is the plan now?

Ageia: AGEIA 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 developers using the PhysX SDK. AGEIA is also credited with developing the world's first dedicated hardware physics processor, the AGEIA PhysX processor.

Both AGEIA and NVIDIA share the same commitment and passion for making the gaming experience dynamic and vivid. The combination of graphics and physics impacts the way a virtual world looks and behaves, thus driving the end-user experience.

2. What happens to employees of Ageia when you integrate into Nvidia?

Ageia: AGEIA has a tremendously talented team. NVIDIA are delighted to have them as part of the NVIDIA family.

3. Why do you believe that Nvidia's acquisition is a good thing for PhysiX?

Ageia: By combining AGEIA's powerful PhysX technology with NVIDIA's industry-leading GPU architectures, we will ensure that gamers and developers alike take advantage of the most compelling physics on the market. Physics is a natural for processing on the GPU because, like graphics, it is made up of thousands of parallel computations. A GPU can process parallel applications up to two orders of magnitude faster than a CPU.

Also, there is a major movement in the computer industry 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. The NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT GPU, with its 128 processors can process parallel applications up to two orders of magnitude faster than a 2, or 4-core CPU.


With the invention of NVIDIA's CUDA, which is rapidly becoming one of the most pervasive parallel computing programming environments in history, we can open this exciting parallel processing world to applications desperate for a giant step in computing performance-such as physics processing, computer vision, video/image processing, and a world of exciting applications we've not yet imagined.

 

4. When can we expect more Physics-based games?

Ageia: Right now there are more than 140 games on the market that have physics support, including Unreal Tournament 3, Ghost Recon 2, and WarMonger.

Of course, we cannot comment on specific unannounced games from our partners, but we will combine the power of PhysX technology with NVIDIA's modern GPU architectures and well-established developer-relations programs to ensure that the best of what gaming has to offer delivers compelling physics to the PC and next-gen game consoles.

We would like to thank Ageia for the interview opportunity. 

Last modified on 11 February 2008
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