New Semiconductor Category Unleashes the Power of Physics in Next-generation
Games
SAN FRANCISCO, March 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Silicon Valley chip maker AGEIA(TM)
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(TM) 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."
By performing advanced physics simulations in real time, the PPU can
respond to gamer actions as well as environments contributing to pervasive
interactive reality. By introducing dramatic amounts of physics, games can now
react uniquely to each input, adding a tremendous variety of game play.
Physics will offer a host of advanced features including universal collision
detection, rigid-body dynamics, soft-body dynamics, fluid dynamics, smart
particle systems, clothing simulation, soft-body deformation with tearing, and
brittle fracturing for destruction of objects in gaming environments.
Completing the Triangle: CPU -- GPU -- PPU
The advent of the PPU and its influence on game reality has the power to
mirror that of Graphic Processing Units (GPU) in the late 1990s. The GPU was
developed as a specialized form of hardware to speed up the rendering and
display functions previously done in software. As a result, the visual quality
of games increased dramatically and every significant game was compelled to
incorporate the new 3D hardware technology.
In turn, the widespread adoption of GPUs created the need for other
functions on the CPU to support the increased visual quality. A similar
phenomenon can be anticipated with the adoption of Physics Processing Units
(PPU). The increased scope of physics has the ability to create the need for
additional CPU functions and raise the bar on the visual effects provided by
the GPU.
"Hardware-accelerated physics is a major innovation that is likely to
breathe new life into the PC as a gaming platform," said Dr. Jon Peddie, Jon
Peddie Research, the leading graphics research firm based in Tiburon, CA.
"While the CPU and GPU offer high-speed game processing and 3D imagery, a
dedicated PPU like the AGEIA PhysX chip is required to truly handle the
compute-intensive tasks of real-world simulation."
NovodeX SDK Enables PhysX Adoption
To give game developers a head start in designing hardware-accelerated
games, AGEIA has made available a software development kit, the NovodeX(TM)
Physics SDK. NovodeX is already in wide use by game developers, many of whom
expect to have hardware-accelerated titles by Christmas of 2005. NovodeX is
also the only multithreaded physics SDK on the market today, which allows game
developers to prepare for tomorrow's multiprocessor PCs and multiprocessor
game platforms.
"With hardware-accelerated physics and an SDK that supports parallel
processing, the sky is the limit for game developers, which is why we believe
the game industry will embrace this new category," said Manju Hegde, CEO and
co-founder of AGEIA.
Company Details
AGEIA was formed in 2002 and secured Series A funding for $9.5 million in
May 2003. Today, the company has more than $38 million in funding and an
additional $30 million secured. Major investors include Apex Venture Partners,
Bank of America Ventures, HIG Ventures, Granite Global Ventures, CID Equity
Partners and TSMC.
Product Availability
Demonstrations of the PhysX PPU will be on display by appointment only at
the Game Developers Conference March 9-11 at the Moscone Center in San
Francisco. Learn why more than 60 game development studios, companies, and
research institutes use NovodeX technologies. Type http://www.ageia.com, e-mail
info@novodex.com or visit us at the Game Developer Conference in ExpoSuite 30.
CONTACT: Kim Stowe of Reverb Communications, Inc., +1-408-839-8750, or
kim@reverbinc.com, for AGEIA.
SOURCE AGEIA Technologies, Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.ageia.com
CONTACT:
Kim Stowe of Reverb Communications, Inc.,
+1-408-839-8750, or kim@reverbinc.com, for AGEIA
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