AGEIA PhysX Information

Good afternoon folks! At midnight tonight, a new player in PC gaming unveiled its plans to introduce a new physics accelerator, that promises to vastly improve the realism of games. AGEIA's PhysX chip, as it's called, won't debut for a few more months, and its success depends on the adoption of the technology by the game development community, but the technology has a lot of promise.  Here are some clips from their press release, and a couple of links to articles about AGEIA and the PhysX chip.

AGEIA's NovodeX Physics SDK Opens New Frontier in Game Realism

NovodeX API optimized for both multi-processor platforms and AGEIA's new PhysX chip

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – March 8, 2005 – AGEIA Technologies, Inc., a company dedicated to delivering pervasive interactive reality to next-generation games, today announced the latest version of its NovodeX Physics SDK, a powerful middleware physics engine for creating dynamic physical environments on all major game platforms.

The NovodeX Physics SDK is the first and only asynchronous (multithreaded) physics API capable of unleashing the power of multiprocessor gaming systems. It also is the only SDK to offer comprehensive API support for the first-ever physics processing unit, AGEIA's PhysX chip.

"The NovodeX Physics SDK has been available for over a year, which has given game developers a head start in implementing game features that will leverage the hardware acceleration of the PhysX chip," said Manju Hegde, CEO and co-founder of AGEIA. "Because of this strategy, we expect to see top-tier game titles in the market by Christmas 2005 that can take advantage of hardware acceleration and deliver unprecedented interactive realism."  Read More...

AGEIA to Redefine Realism with Hardware-Accelerated Physics

New semiconductor category unleashes the power of physics in next-generation games

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – March 8, 2005 – Silicon Valley chip maker AGEIA Technologies, Inc., a company dedicated to delivering pervasive interactive reality to next-generation games, today at the Game Developers Conference introduced a new category of semiconductor—the Physics Processing Unit, or PPU. The company's debut product, the AGEIA PhysX chip, will be the first dedicated physics semiconductor chip to be used in next-generation game platforms.

The current trend among game developers is to use software-based physics engines to enable objects and characters to interact in a real-world manner and provide some of the industry's most stunning effects. However, without dedicated physics hardware game developers are unable to fully unleash the power of physics on today's platforms.

"What is increasingly defining successful games is how well they emulate reality," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst of the Enderle Group. "PhysX has the potential to create environments that are vastly more real and compelling to both existing gamers and those that have not yet discovered the amazing worlds created by leading developers."  Read More...

 AGEIA announces PhysX processing unit @ Gamestop:

"Your games are about to get a lot more interactive. Fabless semiconductor company Ageia has today announced PhysX, the world's first physics processing unit. The PhysX chip is a dedicated physics processing engine designed to coexist with the CPU and the GPU in existing desktop systems."

 AGEIA Interview @ Gamers-Depot:

"Have you had the privilege of sitting on pins and needles with information that has the potential to revolutionize all genre of PC gaming – that's called hell on Earth for a gamer and is exactly what the fine folks of Ageia have had to do since the company started back in 2002.

Sure we've all heard about the CPU and GPU – that's old hat by now and as most hardware reviewers will tell you, it's about time we got something that's truly revolutionary. Yeah, Pixel shaders are cool, and can do a lot of really nice things; however, pale in comparison in scope to what the PhysX chip from Ageia has the potential to bring to gaming."

There are quite a few white papers available on AGEIA's website, along with a really cool "Rocket" demo. We suggest heading over to their site for more information - It's interesting stuff.