AGEIA Not Acquired, After All

[Rob Williams]

From our front-page news:We linked to a rumor (http://techgage.com/news/rumor_ageia_could_have_been_acquired/) yesterday, one that claimed AGEIA had been acquired. Not surprisingly, it has already been debunked. According to X-bit labs, AGEIA is denying any acquisition and boldly states that they have a road map in place and plan to follow it.

AGEIA is currently owned by a conglomerate of venture capitalists, and a sale doesn't seem to make sense right now. But is that the case? AGEIA seems to be in a prime position for being acquired, especially since Intel took in Havok (http://techgage.com/news/intel_to_acquire_havok/) under its arms. Of course, maybe AGEIA has more to prove, more in store to help drive up their value. Perhaps no sale is in place now, but it would be hard to believe if something doesn't happen within the next year.

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Currently Ageia is owned by a group of investors, including Apex Venture Partners, BA Venture Partners, HIG Ventures, Granite Global Ventures, CID Equity Partners, and VentureTech Alliance. Typically such companies are interested in either selling their startups to others, or making them public. However, this time Ageia denies any ownership change.

Source: X-bit labs (http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20080122131731_Ageia_Technologies_Denies_Its_Takeo ver_by_Third_Party.html)

[Merlin]

I have an extra slot and I may just play around with it.. for 100.00 USD

:techgage::techgage::techgage::techgage:Merlin:tec hgage::techgage::techgage::techgage:

[Rob Williams]

(4) 8-Packs of Guinness > AGEIA PhysX

[sbrehm72255]

I heard that Nvidia is doing something like a software PhyXs engine so woy won't need a card at all.............

I'll see if I can dig up the link again, it was a few weeks ago that I was reading about it.

[Merlin]

I heard that Nvidia is doing something like a software PhyXs engine so woy won't need a card at all.............

I'll see if I can dig up the link again, it was a few weeks ago that I was reading about it.
Yup they already have that built into the cards.
Quantum is what I think they call it

:techgage:Merlin:techgage:

[sbrehm72255]

Last I heard it wasn't ready yet, but I haven't been following it really close, but I do think is was to be supported by the 98XX series cards.
Looks like I need to do a bit more research on the topic.

[Merlin]

Last I heard it wasn't ready yet, but I haven't been following it really close, but I do think is was to be supported by the 98XX series cards.
Looks like I need to do a bit more research on the topic.
This is saying Feb 4 2008
http://www.nvidia.com/object/io_1202161567170.html
AND
from the agia site
http://www.ageia.com/


:techgage::techgage: Merlin :techgage::techgage:

[sbrehm72255]

Thanks for the links, I'll have to take a read after dinner, the wife just rang the come to eat bell...............;)

[Rob Williams]

Purchasing an AGEIA PhysX card right now is just a bad move... even if it cost $20. It offers virtually nothing to the consumer except to be able to play a few tech demos that are passed off as games. If anything comes from this NVIDIA acquisition, it means that the PhysX PPU benefits will be integrated into the GPU core. If not in the core, then it could easily be a separate chip on the PCB itself. If not that, then it won't be hardware-driven, and instead become a direct competitor to Havok.

If one thing is for sure, the acquisition of AGEIA was a good one for AGEIA themselves, since without that kind of support, they would have gotten no where in the grand scheme of things.

Last I heard it wasn't ready yet, but I haven't been following it really close, but I do think is was to be supported by the 98XX series cards.
Looks like I need to do a bit more research on the topic.

I'd be surprised if that turned out to be the case, since the 98xx have been feature-complete for a few months, while the acquisition pretty well just happened.

[sbrehm72255]

If I remember correctly the one article I read about the software engine was back before the 9800 series specs were released. Who knows, something to keep a eye out for.

[sbrehm72255]

Here's something on the topic:

Huang revealed that Nvidia's strategy is to take the PhysX engine and port it onto CUDA. For those not in the know, CUDA stands for Compute Unified Device Architecture, and it's a C-like application programming interface Nvidia developed to let programmers write general-purpose applications that can run on GPUs. All of Nvidia's existing GeForce 8 graphics processors already support CUDA, and Huang confirmed that the cards will be able to run PhysX.

We're working toward the physics-engine-to-CUDA port as we speak. And we intend to throw a lot of resources at it. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if it helps our GPU sales even in advance of [the port's completion]. The reason is, [it's] just gonna be a software download. Every single GPU that is CUDA-enabled will be able to run the physics engine when it comes. . . . Every one of our GeForce 8-series GPUs runs CUDA.

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/14147

http://arstechnica.com/journals/hardware.ars/2008/02/15/nvidia-announces-software-support-for-physx-in-all-8-series-cards

[Rob Williams]

Huang revealed that Nvidia's strategy is to take the PhysX engine and port it onto CUDA.

I have no idea how I missed that the first time around, but that pretty much says it all. CUDA might not be huge right now, but if implemented right, game developers will hopefully begin to pick up on it.