Graphics card producer NVidia confirmed late yesterday it is purchasing Ageia Technologies, the first producer of so-called ‘physics processors’ for 3D gamers, for an undisclosed amount. Ageia Technologies is best known for its PhysX processor, which is supported by popular games such as Gears of War, the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon series, and Unreal Tournament 3. Working under NVidia’s wing will help the company properly implement PhysX into future product launches, which should result in a broader target market.
Nvidia probably felt they had to buy them after Intel grabbed Havok, who had been working with Nvidia on their planned GPU based physics.
That’s quite a bit of consolidation in the gaming physics area now. Ageia had previously bought Meqon (being used by 3drealms on DNF (heh)).
It all leaves AMD/ATI a bit out in the cold. I can’t think of any other big physics companies they could buy. If Intel finally gets into the discrete GFX arena that’s more bad news for AMD/ATI.
And it hopefully means more good news for us. Intel have always been very Open Source friendly. If they make a discrete GFX card that rivals anything from ATI or nVidia, I am so there.
High performance 3D graphics that work on any platform? *drools*
I wouldn’t jump to this conclusion. Don’t forget that Intel is just a company and if competition gets bad and Intel monopolizes the thing they will turn their backs on OSS. Don’t forget that all they want is profit.
Besides, AMD has been doing a good job with the ATI Linux drivers lately (nothing spectacular, but they fixed more stuff in 2 releases than ATI in 2 years).