NVIDIA ha acquisito AGEIA

[Foglia Morta]

http://www.nvidia.com/object/io_1202161567170.html

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SANTA CLARA, CA — FEBRUARY 4, 2008—NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA), 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®-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® GeForce® 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™ 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® products, the professional design and visualization market with its Quadro® products, and the high-performance computing market with its Tesla™ products. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif. and has offices throughout Asia, Europe, and the Americas. For more information, visit www.nvidia.com.

[nico88desmo]

Incredibile!!!

[wiltord]

http://www.hwupgrade.it/news/skvideo...eia_24129.html

[Defragg]

Non so se esserne felice o preoccupato. Comunque c'era proprio da aspettarselo.

[appleroof]

http://www.hwupgrade.it/forum/showthread.php?t=1175489

[Defragg]

Originariamente inviato da appleroof

http://www.hwupgrade.it/forum/showthread.php?t=1175489

Credo che il topic sia per discutere delle possibili implicazioni dell'aquisizione, non per parlare di PhysX

[Foglia Morta]

In a rather unexpected move, Nvidia Corp. took control over Ageia Technologies, the world’s only developer of physics processing units for video games. We decided to find out some more information about the future of physics processing and asked a vice president of Ageia several questions. Will there be Nvidia-branded PhysX accelerators? Is Nvidia developing an open GPU physics platform? Let’s find out!

The acquisition of Ageia Technologies by Nvidia Corp. was hardly a surprise, but it did came relatively unexpected primarily because neither Nvidia needed Ageia in the short-term, nor Ageia showed signs that it needed to be taken over. But what’s done is done and X-bit labs asked several questions to Michael Steele, who is vice president of marketing at Ageia, about the future of the company and PhysX.

“This Is The Time to Make an Aggressive Move Forward!”


There has always been a sacred circle for Ageia: on the one hand it needed to sell as many PhysX PPU add-in-cards to end-users to make game developers interested in implementing support for the hardware-accelerated physic into their titles, on the other hand, few end-users are interested in buying a hardware that will only be supported some time in future. As a result, Ageia PhysX PPU have not become popular at all, unlike PhysX SDK, which is used relatively widely during game development for the latest video game consoles.



But maybe this will change now that Ageia is a part of Nvidia Corp., currently the largest supplier of discrete graphics processing units (GPUs) for personal computers (PCs)?

X-bit labs: Why did you feel it was the time to become a part of a larger company?

Did you feel that the model, which relies on dedicated physics processing unit (PPU) hardware that should be acquired for $100 - $200 separately turned out to be unsuccessful?

Michael Steele: We’re happy that we were so instrumental in establishing physics as a meaningful category in PC and console gaming. We believe strongly in hardware-accelerated physics and believe the time is right to make an aggressive move forward. By combining Ageia’s PhysX technology with Nvidia’s industry leading GPU architectures, we’ll ensure that gamers and developers alike take advantage of the most compelling physics on the market.

X-bit labs: What benefits can collaboration of Ageia and Nvidia bring the whole industry?

Michael Steele: Well, it’s clear that physics is one of the next great opportunities for gaming innovation. It is a substantial and visceral differentiator for game developers and a tremendous improvement to the gaming experience. The combination of Nvidia and Ageia technologies will deliver that next-generation experience. Everyone wins! Developers will now have a powerful industry leader dedicated to enabling physics across multiple platforms with an eye toward open access to the technology. Gamers will get the benefit of an increasingly better game experience and the opportunity for some dazzling GPU-enhanced physics.

The Future of Ageia PhysX PPUs

Nvidia has a long history of acquisitions, but despite of this the company does not seem to have a strict policy regarding companies it acquires. For example, when it acquired 3dfx, it ceased to sell Voodoo graphics cards almost immediately and there was barely any support for 3dfx graphics cards going forward. On the other hand, when Nvidia took over MediaQ, it re-branded certain products and continued their sales and support.

What will happen to PhysX and the support of its early adopters? Perhaps, there are more dedicated Ageia PhysX physics processing units incoming?

X-bit labs: Does the acquisition mean that there will be no more Ageia PhysX dedicated physics processing units and all the physics acceleration will be carried out by Nvidia GeForce GPUs? Perhaps, future Nvidia GeForce GPUs could integrate certain parts of PPUs?

Michael Steele: As part of Nvidia, we are still committed to hardware-accelerated physics and will support current customer commitments to the PhysX processor, as well as future business, as demand dictates. That being said, we will also begin work in parallel to enable physics on a GeForce processor as soon as possible. New GeForce processor architectures will definitely be something to be reckoned with and we see PhysX as a great addition to enabling Nvidia to continue driving the game experience.

X-bit labs: Will you continue to support existing PhysX PPU owners? If yes, for how long?

Michael Steele: We are still committed to hardware-accelerated physics and will support existing PPU customer commitments, as well as future business, as demand dictates.

X-bit labs: Can we interpret this claim as an indirect promise to release more Ageia PhysX dedicated PPUs in future, if Nvidia feels there is enough demand for it?

Michael Steele: As long as there is demand, Nvidia will do what’s right to support it. Obviously, all of Ageia’s customers from end-user, to system vendor, to console maker, to developer, are the same as Nvidia’s and we’ll do what’s best to support them in driving physics forward and enabling them to be successful with the technology. I would expect demand to continue growing since the addition of GPU physics will open up a much bigger market for game developers and should lead to many more PhysX-driven games in the future.

X-bit labs: Will there be any PhysX-branded physics accelerators based on Nvidia GeForce GPUs that will not be intended for graphics, but will be designed strictly for physics acceleration?

Michael Steele: At this early stage, I can't say for sure what all the final products will look like. I can say that we are committed to adding GPUs as a great way to enable PhysX.

X-bit labs: Can you compare performance of PhysX PPU against Nvidia GeForce GPU; say, vs. GeForce 8600 GTS or GeForce 8800 GT?

Michael Steele: Again, it’s too soon to comment on the specifics. We’re convinced that Nvidia enables the world's best GPU’s for a variety of entertainment and general-purpose applications and will continue to evolve the processor architecture to address a growing number of new applications like physics. Ageia is an expert at enabling multithreaded hardware-accelerated physics in any form. Together, we will develop the best physics-enabled platforms with our next-generation software and hardware.



It is interesting to note that back in August ’07 several picture of what was claimed to be a next-generation dedicated physics accelerator from Ageia were published on the Internet. For some reason, the board featured a cooling system with Nvidia logotype on it as well as a SLI-like interface.

It should also be noted that video games will hardly start to support GPU physics overnight: development cycles last for years and quality implementation of a feature requires this feature to be a part of the project from day one. Therefore, one could hardly expect high-quality titles to utilize GeForce-accelerated PhysX or PPU-accelerated PhysX shortly after the transaction between Ageia and Nvidia takes place.

Nvidia Readies Open Standard for GPU Physics?

Perhaps, the main reason why Ageia could not make its PhysX PPU exceptionally popular is because it could not manage to sell many add-on boards. It is indisputable fact that Nvidia has much broader install base with its GeForce graphics processors, hence, allowing them to compute physics effects will catalyze game developers to implement better quality physics effects.

The question, however, is whether Ageia’s PhysX technology will be able to take advantage of GPUs in general, which means that ATI Radeon, Intel Corp.’s graphics cores and S3 Graphics’ graphics chips, besides Nvidia’s own GeForce will be supported; or Nvidia will only let game developers to compute physics on the GeForce. In the former case Nvidia will enable an open standard to develop physics effects that rely on graphics chips, thus, PhysX will eventually compete against Microsoft’s Direct Physics. In the latter case Nvidia will only allow physics to be computed on GeForce graphics processing units, hence, far not all game developers will make use of it.

We do not know many open or industry-standard technologies developed by Nvidia and used by other companies, which may compete against the Santa Clara, California-based graphics firm, except MXM standards for mobile graphics sub-systems and extreme memory profiles (XMP). Virtually all technologies that the company develops remain proprietary. Nevertheless, Nvidia should understand quite well that without contributing to the industry, some of its efforts will never turn out to be popular.

Keeping in mind that GPU physics is about increasing importance of graphics processing units in general, it may be possible that GPU PhysX technology by Ageia will become, maybe, to some degree, open to companies outside Nvidia. Another option would be to increase importance of Nvidia GeForce and close the platform for other GPU vendors. In that case far not all games even among them that belong to The Way It’s Meant To Be Played program will utilize PhysX GPU physics effects technology.

X-bit labs: Will Ageia PhysX SDK will be able to take advantage only of PhysX PPUs and GeForce GPUs? Or it will be able to use x86 CPUs and ATI Radeon GPUs?

Michael Steele: We’ll continue to support the current SDK and will immediately begin the work to accelerate PhysX with our GPUs. We’ll also continue to support CPUs in keeping with the heterogeneous compute model that Nvidia has been extending with its increasingly flexible and powerful GPUs and CUDA programming environment.

Nvidia is committed to creating a development environment that enables the pervasive use of PhysX technology and innovative implementations of physics in gaming on today’s PPU, CPU and in the future, the GPU. Of course, we’ll also continue to provide the best complete platform of both software and hardware to developers and gamers.

X-bit labs: Will “GeForce-accelerated PhysX”require a standalone GeForce board, or physics processing will rely on a single GPU with graphics?

Michael Steele: It’s too early to comment on how this will be rolled out. But we expect it to happen as soon as possible. Consider that Ageia designed its multithreaded PhysX software specifically for hardware acceleration in massively parallel environments. Nvidia’s GPUs are well-suited to take advantage of PhysX software and Ageia’s expertise in that environment. Also, it is clear that Nvidia is committed to enabling pervasive physics through open platform initiatives.

X-bit labs: What do you actually mean by open platform initiatives here? Does it mean that Nvidia will keep developing PhysX SDK and it will support x86 microprocessors, Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3? Or does it mean that PhysX SDK will be compatible with all of the above as well as DirectX 10 GPUs in general?

Michael Steele: It means that Nvidia wants to be open in its further development of PhysX software in order to enable as many platforms as possible on both PC and console. Nvidia understands better than anyone the need to enable a large and unrestricted market for game developers. I don’t think anyone will question their unique capabilities to support the development community. Enabling a physics eco-system and then delivering the best hardware for that environment is good for gaming.

X-bit labs: Thank you very much for your detailed and first-hand answers! We wish Ageia all the best as a part of Nvidia Corp. and good luck with new challenges!

Fonte

[ISOLA]

secondo me Nvidia ha veramente fatto una gran bella mossa.....
Adesso "letto niente" non so se aiuterà il brand a fare schede only per la fisica o se userà la loro tecnologia per le loro schede grafiche ,in ogni caso Nvidia sfornerà prodotti veramente interessanti e se ha comprato AGEIA si vede che scommette molto nel futuro della fisica nei giochi...

Figurarsi,quando Nvidia sfornerà una scheda con un chip dedicato alla sola fisica sarà pieno zeppo di hardcore gamers che la compreranno istantaneamente.

[appleroof]

Originariamente inviato da Defragg

Credo che il topic sia per discutere delle possibili implicazioni dell'aquisizione, non per parlare di PhysX

infatti negli ultimi post del tread vecchio di quello si parlava, cmq vabbè

[Grey 7]

Originariamente inviato da ISOLA

secondo me Nvidia ha veramente fatto una gran bella mossa.....
Adesso "letto niente" non so se aiuterà il brand a fare schede only per la fisica o se userà la loro tecnologia per le loro schede grafiche ,in ogni caso Nvidia sfornerà prodotti veramente interessanti e se ha comprato AGEIA si vede che scommette molto nel futuro della fisica nei giochi...

Figurarsi,quando Nvidia sfornerà una scheda con un chip dedicato alla sola fisica sarà pieno zeppo di hardcore gamers che la compreranno istantaneamente.

cosi finalmente daremo una vera esistenza a questi chip dedicati alla gestione della fisica. Anche perchè fin'ora queste schede AGEIA non son servite a molto..anzi

[zanardi84]

E' una mossa che apre definitivamente al multicore sulle gpu, in particolare all'assegnazione di uno o più alle operazioni di gestione della finica e uno o più al rendering delle immagini.

E' la risposta al multicore di AMD.


Fanno sempre passi avanti incredibili nelle prestazioni, mentre sul piano dei consumi non si progredisce molto. Con le soluzioni multicore c'è il rischio che i pcb delle schede diventino sempre più ingombranti. Senza contare i sistemi di dissipazione sempre più spessi e prevedo rumorosi.

[Simon82]

Addio alla scheda, al supporto ecc ecc...

[Foglia Morta]

acquisizione andata a buone fine...

http://www.nvidia.com/object/io_1202895129984.html

peccato non ci siano i dettagli economici

[P3pPoS83]

Quindi fine supporto x la schedina???

Bye

[Foglia Morta]

non penso... nel breve / medio periodo l'unica cosa che ha da guadagnare nVidia da questa acquisizione è la presenza di questa scheda.

nVidia ha detto che servirà soprattutto a migliorare CUDA questa acquisizione, ma non dall'oggi al domani.

Penso che Ageia abbia in cantiere la seconda generazione di ppu da tempo, probabilmente la commercializzeranno ma per la fisica nei giochi ci vuole uno standard unico. IMHO bisognerà attendere le DX11.