AGEIA
Encyclopedia
Ageia, founded in 2002, was a fabless semiconductor company
. Ageia invented PhysX
– a Physics Processing Unit
chip capable of performing game physics
calculations much faster than general purpose CPUs
; they also licensed out the PhysX
SDK
(formerly NovodeX SDK), a large physics
middleware
library for game production.
Ageia was noted as being the first company to develop hardware designed to offload calculation of video game physics from the CPU to a separate chip. Prior to this, solutions from ATI
and Nvidia
had not been planned nor announced. Soon after the Ageia implementation of their PhysX
processor,
Nvidia and ATI announced their own physics implementations.
On February 4, 2008, Nvidia
announced that it would acquire Ageia. On February 13, 2008, the merger was finalized.
The PhysX engine is now known as Nvidia PhysX.
Fabless semiconductor company
A fabless semiconductor company specializes in the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing the fabrication or "fab" of the devices to a specialized manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry...
. Ageia invented PhysX
PhysX
PhysX is a proprietary realtime physics engine middleware SDK developed by Ageia with the purchase of ETH Zurich spin-off NovodeX in 2004...
– a Physics Processing Unit
Physics processing unit
A physics processing unit is a dedicated microprocessor designed to handle the calculations of physics, especially in the physics engine of video games. Examples of calculations involving a PPU might include rigid body dynamics, soft body dynamics, collision detection, fluid dynamics, hair and...
chip capable of performing game physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
calculations much faster than general purpose CPUs
Central processing unit
The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
; they also licensed out the PhysX
PhysX
PhysX is a proprietary realtime physics engine middleware SDK developed by Ageia with the purchase of ETH Zurich spin-off NovodeX in 2004...
SDK
Software development kit
A software development kit is typically a set of software development tools that allows for the creation of applications for a certain software package, software framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or similar platform.It may be something as simple...
(formerly NovodeX SDK), a large physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
middleware
Middleware
Middleware is computer software that connects software components or people and their applications. The software consists of a set of services that allows multiple processes running on one or more machines to interact...
library for game production.
Ageia was noted as being the first company to develop hardware designed to offload calculation of video game physics from the CPU to a separate chip. Prior to this, solutions from ATI
Ati
As a word, Ati may refer to:* Ati, a town in Chad* Ati, a Negrito ethnic group in the Philippines* Ati-Atihan Festival, an annual celebration held in the Philippines* Ati, a queen of the fabled Land of Punt in Africa...
and Nvidia
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
had not been planned nor announced. Soon after the Ageia implementation of their PhysX
PhysX
PhysX is a proprietary realtime physics engine middleware SDK developed by Ageia with the purchase of ETH Zurich spin-off NovodeX in 2004...
processor,
Nvidia and ATI announced their own physics implementations.
On February 4, 2008, Nvidia
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
announced that it would acquire Ageia. On February 13, 2008, the merger was finalized.
The PhysX engine is now known as Nvidia PhysX.
See also
- SwitchballSwitchballSwitchball is a 3D action-puzzle game, made by Swedish developer Atomic Elbow, which was released for Microsoft Windows on June 26, 2007, on Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360 on November 7, 2007 and on PlayStation Network for the PlayStation 3 on September 17, 2009.-Gameplay:The game puts the...
, the first commercially released video game utilizing the engine. - Microsoft Robotics StudioMicrosoft Robotics StudioMicrosoft Robotics Developer Studio is a Windows-based environment for robot control and simulation. It is aimed at academic, hobbyist, and commercial developers and handles a wide variety of robot hardware....
, Simulations use the PhysX engine