But how can this possibly work?

It's actually a simple idea. All GeForce 8-series cards include CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture). CUDA is essentially an interface for developers to write programs to run off the GPU (as opposed to your computer's CPU). Essentially, NVIDIA is porting PhysX technology to CUDA and powering it with their/your existing 3D hardware.

Also of note: NVIDIA thinks it's a great way to sell their customers higher end cards, and sell more of them per computer.

GeForce 8 graphics processors to gain PhysX support [Techreport via digg]

NVIDIA today confirmed rumblings that they were looking to buy physics-centric AGEIA Technologies. NVIDIA said today that an agreement to acquire the industry leaders in gaming physics, though the acquisition still remains subject to some closing conditions.

More details about the deal will shake out during NVIDIA's upcoming quarterly conference call, set for Feb. 13.

While AGEIA appears to continue to struggle breaking into the mainstream PC market, they've made significant in-roads into the console market with 140 PhysX-based games shipping or in development on the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and PC. The company has more than 10,000 registered and active users of their PhysX software development kit as well.

"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.

Full release on the jump. I wonder if NVIDIA would try to come up with a way to incorporate the PhysX engine into a graphics card, instead of requiring two pieces of hardware? Maybe that's not possible, actually.

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

And when ordering a new computer, checking a $50 box rings of "impulse buy" a lot more than a card running three times that price. Seriously, $50 in computers is the grocery store checkout equivalent of a Mars bar and an issue of Cosmo. (Which, by the way, makes for a great Friday night if you are short on plans).

PhysX Cards At $50 In Japan [digitalbattle]

NetDevil's PhysX-powered, totally destructible (mostly) shooter Warmonger, Operation: Downtown Destruction is now available for free download on the official site.

It's worth noting that not only is the game free, it doesn't actually require AGEIA's PhysX card to play. You need the card to get the total experience, but don't let that stop you from checking it out if you don't have one.

Here are the official requirements:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6400 (2MB L2 Cache,2.13GHz,1066) or equivalent
RAM: 2GB RAM
GPU: Nvidia 7900 graphics card or equivalent
PPU: PhysX 100 Series Processor strongly recommended, with system software 7.11.13 or later
HD: 1.8GB of available space

Warmonger Game

Ageia just sent me one of their PhysX graphics cards to check out. Unfortunately, there's not much in the way of games to play using it. They did include a copy of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 and a PhysX-supported level called Ageia Island.

There are a few other games out there that support it, but really not that many. I'm intrigued with the concept because I sort of liken in to sound cards for the PC back in the day. There was a time, I kid you not, when sound was not a given in games. In fact it was unusual. Well real sound, you got plenty of bleeps and bloops, but I'm talking speech and honest to goodness sound effects.

I still remember the day I ponied up for a sound card. It was for Wing Commander Privateer. Before that game released a speech pack I saw absolutely no reason to spend my money on sound. How absurd, I thought, why would I want to do that. But then the voice pack hit and I was at the store buying both a sound card and the pack.

That's what Ageia needs, I suspect, a game that opens peoples eyes to the need for such a think as a PhysX card. Of course, I don't know yet if we actually do need a separate physics card. I hope to figure that out this weekend.

Colorado's own NetDevil unveiled today their latest game, a first-person shooter built around the AGEIA PhysX processor called Warmonger, Operation: Downtown Destruction.

We first broke the news that NetDevil was working on a shooter a few weeks back.

The game will be set in the year 2029 at the beginning of the Global Corporate Wars. The concept is that players need to take down a city one block at a time.

"NetDevil has poured their imagination into this title, and it shows in virtually every aspect of the game," said Manju Hegde, CEO of AGEIA. "We've been very impressed with what they've been able to do with our PhysX processor, as well as visual enhancements they've made to the game by combining it with the Unreal Engine 3. "The benefits of the destruction system are noteworthy, and added PhysX elements of fluids and cloth will give a depth and feel that truly reflect the cutting edge of gaming interactivity."

The key new thing about the game is that it allows you to destroy literally every aspect of the environment.

Destruction is done procedurally, rather than pre-canned animations that are found in most games today. As a result, explosives, rockets, indirect fire, and vehicle combat can literally blow away walls, drop ceilings and open up new pathways for enhanced gameflow. Collision detection has also been carefully considered during development, and the effect of destruction within the environment can be used as a weapon. A sniper can blow the stairs behind him to block access, but a rocket to the floor beneath him will drop him down, causing possible death.

Sure it's meant to get you to buy an AGEIA PhysX card, but there's nothing wrong with that. Most new PC games get you go upgrade nowadays. Brian Crecente

The AGEIA PhysX Processor Powers Revolutionary First-Person Shooter

Las Vegas, NV & Louisville, CO: January 8th, 2007: NetDevil, an independent game company and leading developer of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), today announced it is working on a revolutionary new title called Warmonger, Operation: Downtown Destruction, an apocalyptic, first-person shooter (FPS), built around the AGEIA PhysX processor, which enables NetDevil's unique, piece-by-piece destruction system and is designed to deliver stunning fluid and cloth-based effects unlike anything seen before. Assets from the much anticipated, urban destruction trainer, will be unveiled today at the Consumer Electronics Show in the AGEIA meeting room #73024 located at the Sands Expo and Convention Center.
"Our ability to combine the AGEIA PhysX engine with Unreal Engine 3 (UE3) will forever change the way people think and play first-person shooters," said Scott Brown, president of NetDevil. "New rigid body technology and implementation allow for scope of destruction unlike any other FPS currently available. As a player, you'll be able to feel the freedom of completely adaptive environments and the full use of conscious, destructive power."

About Warmonger, Operation: Downtown Destruction

The year is 2029 and the Global Corporate Wars have begun! Warmonger is set against an apocalyptic setting, when two of the largest military spenders, PolyChem Oil and General Energy, clashed in a dispute over a large cache of Iranian oil fields. When the conflict escalated, an all-out war took shape on US soil. The game is staged for players to take down an entire city; one block at a time. As maps are won, a larger tactical influence is then triggered in the next, or surrounding, map(s). Each map instance will play differently as the sheer destruction of map elements forces players to adapt and find new ways to win or defend their objectives. Every round leads you closer to dominating the web of maps that make up the entire city and players have the ability to raise their ranking in a class, gaining extra abilities for high performance. Operation: Downtown Destruction is part of a longer series involving distinct periods from the episodic Warmonger story.

Unique to Warmonger is a destruction system that allows dynamic gameplay to emerge from the results of combat, where every aspect of the environment can be completely leveled. Destruction is done procedurally, rather than pre-canned animations that are found in most games today. As
a result, explosives, rockets, indirect fire, and vehicle combat can literally blow away walls, drop ceilings and open up new pathways for enhanced gameflow. Collision detection has also been carefully considered during development, and the effect of destruction within the environment can be used as a weapon. A sniper can blow the stairs behind him to block access, but a rocket to the floor beneath him will drop him down, causing possible death.

"NetDevil has poured their imagination into this title, and it shows in virtually every aspect of the game," said Manju Hegde, CEO of AGEIA. "We've been very impressed with what they've been able to do with our PhysX processor, as well as visual enhancements they've made to the game by combining it with the Unreal Engine 3. "The benefits of the destruction system are noteworthy, and added PhysX elements of fluids and cloth will give a depth and feel that truly reflect the cutting edge of gaming interactivity."
Scott Brown added: "The Warmonger concept was developed to bring UE3 expertise to the NetDevil team and position the company's resources for a larger deployment of the design. Warmonger is more than a proof of concept; it is the basis for a fully-realized MMO design that NetDevil will be looking to bring to market."
In addition to AGEIA, NetDevil has leveraged the Unreal Engine 3 from Epic Games for the core technology underneath Warmonger, and is also working with LIDAR Services, a Motion Picture CG VFX House using LIDAR technology to create the ultra-realistic 3D environments and assets for the Warmonger concept. Both partnerships are fundamental to the enabling of feature rich development and interactive content creation.

The developer will use AGEIA's PhysX SDK to create the games that utilize the AGEIA PhysX processor.

"AGEIA PhysX technology is the wave of the future for physics-optimized games on all platforms," said Bill Petro, vice president of production at Nival Interactive. "Our PC games in particular will get a tremendous boost in interactivity for gamers that power their PC rigs with the AGEIA PhysX processor."

This is a kinda cool announcement, though I was hoping that we'd be seeing more first-person shooters with this technology built in. Brian Crecente