Havok Software Purchased by Intel - Physix Info

[maverik-sg1]

http://www.dailytech.com/Physics+Acceleration+Heats+Up+Intel+to+Purchase+Havok/article8896.htm

Intel reaches definitive agreement to purchase physics software developer Havok

Intel has announced it has signed a definitive agreement to purchase software developer Havok, Inc. Havok provides various software development tools to digital animation and game developers and is one of the largest providers for software physics.

“Havok is a proven leader in physics technology for gaming and digital content, and will become a key element of Intel’s visual computing and graphics efforts,” said Renee J. James, Intel vice president and general manager of Software and Solutions Group.

“This is a great fit for Havok products, customers and employees,” remarked Havok CEO David O’Meara. “Intel’s scale of technology investment and customer reach enable Havok with opportunities to grow more quickly into new market segments with new products than we could have done organically. We believe the winning combination is Havok’s technology and customer know-how with Intel’s scale. I am excited to be part of this next phase of Havok’s growth.”

A recent trend is to offload physics processing to either a GPU or dedicated physics processor. So far, though, Ageia, ATI, and NVIDIA have not made much headway in the physics market.

Both NVIDIA and ATI have previewed CrossFire and SLI Physics, however, neither company has delivered any actual physics hardware yet. It’s pretty interesting to note that both ATI and NVIDIA’s physics solutions rely on Havok FX. However, it is unlikely that Intel’s acquisition of Havok will affect Havok’s partnership with either AMD or NVIDIA.

“Havok will operate its business as usual, which will allow them to continue developing products that are offered across all platforms in the industry,” said Renee J. James regarding the future of Havok.

Essentially, Havok will operate as a subsidiary of Intel and will continue to operate as an independent business. This reinforces the belief that current partnerships will not be affected.

Havok has partnerships with many of the largest names in the gaming community such as Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, NVIDIA, and AMD. Havok has provided software physics for games like Halo 3, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Half Life 2 and Lost Planet: Extreme Condition.

In addition to providing software that adds physics realism to games, Havok also provides physics for professional software such as Autodesk’s 3DS Studio Max 9.

I thought this was owned by Nvidia now, so who sold it to Intel and why :?

 

[maverik-sg1]

Ageia News

http://www.dailytech.com/The+Forecast+for+AGEIA/article2703.htm

Manufacturers tell DailyTech where AGEIA is headed

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with AGEIA board partners to see where the company was going.

Arguably, the largest complaint AGEIA board partners have is there is no single entity guiding reviewers and marketing. BFG, ASUS and others must rely on their own marketing teams to push the review guides and benchmarks. Furthermore, the largest problem with AGEIA's marketing right now is there is no competition. There is no singular way to benchmark PhysX against a competitor like NVIDIA-Havok or ATI's physics processing, which should be announced later today.

The golden chalice for physics processing would ultimately be a $100 add-on card, even if the card provided only half of the performance supplied by a full blown AGEIA card. Currently, at $280, a PhysX card costs more than a serious video card upgrade, such as a GeForce 7900GT. Almost anyone will tell you, if you're upgrading a system from a 6600GT the benefit is in grabbing a new video card rather than a PhysX processor. However, at $100, the gain for someone using a mid-range card becomes much more justifiable if PhysX supports a title you own already.

Unfortunately, manufacturers tell us ASIC that AGEIA runs on costs more than $100. As a result, the company is currently exploring plans to go the other direction with PhysX. Corporate planning roadmaps reveal that the company is "looking into" the possibilities of multiple-PhysX cards and multiple PhysX chips on a single PCB. Instead of appealing to the masses, the direction appears to appeal to the super-enthusiast. Certainly, if AGEIA can substantially ramp production of its ASICs, we may see such a card. Perhaps UMA-esque memory support to reduce the cost of onboard memory as well.

Ultimately, AGEIA's success will still hinge on middleware support. It's not to say that AGEIA's middleware isn't good. On the contrary, from the developers we've talked to, AGEIA's middleware is excellent even when compared to the likes of Havok, but there is no easy "fix" to implement without incorporating hooks in the game engine in very early stages.

 

[sacha35]

Looks like you where right mate, you said that intel could move into this last year, next year should show us some good things from Intel