AGEIA Launches Mobile PhysX Chip for Notebooks
The AGEIA PhysX hardware accelerator has been a solution in search of a program. Meaning, there's just not enough software available to really make it worthwhile. That said, they have announced a mobile version for notebooks.
Today, the company announced the PhysX 100M mobile processor, aimed at adding hardware-accelerated physics to high-end desktop replacement gaming notebooks. According to the press release, this new mobile part is designed to operate, "with power dissipation of nearly 10W under gameplay conditions." It also includes power management features not seen in the desktop version, to throttle down the clock speed if things get too hot or if the chip is idle.It looks like the first laptop to have one of these will be Dell, though there's no details on what model it will appear on. Our thought would be one of the XPS gaming models.
Judging from the image of the mobile part, it comes as a module including chip and memory, similar to the desktop card but in a different form factor and with a different connector. Don't expect to find these in a 6 lb. laptop, though. This is aimed at those big heavy 17" desktop replacement gaming notebooks with high-end graphics and CPUs.
