PPU Physics Processing Unit

tba

http://www.ageia.com/technology.html

Just read about these gadgets due out soon with several games due to support them including atari's "Path of Neo" and "Rise of Nations Rise of Legends".

Apparently it will allow many multiples of physics objects on screen at once in compasison to existing setups. It also will compute fluid and fur dynamics.

Some comments

Jammer

Another €400+ component for the high-end PC!!

Could take advantage of the PCIEx x1 though. Finally something which can sit in one...?

tba

I imagine if it became popular that nvidia, ati would start putting it them on their cards, thus reducing the price, and freeing up slots, of course the memory would have to double on the card too.

bounty

gfx + ppu combo card? its possible seeing as nvidia / ati (i presume) would be the pioneers of the new ppu's

but... why isnt there sound + graphics combo cards then?

[edit just thought of a few reasons, extra plugs needed for sound and sound cards are big]

DemonOfTheFall

nvidia and ati arent pioneering the PPUs, its a company called Ageia. Seems like yet another thing to bleed money out of ppl if you ask me, isnt a dual core 3800+ fast enough to do the physics?!? theres a whole core sitting there doing nothing...

Khannie

PPU's ftw tbh. You could say that the processor should be fast enough to do the graphics processing. Dedicated gaming hardware is a great idea. I'm only surprised that Havok haven't put some serious money into this (given their physics engine is in use all over the place).

astrofool

they missed the boat, as it were. I know one of the guys who coded that (havok) engine (work with him). He had wanted to develop a similar PPU for Havok, but they weren't interested at the time, he was laughing when I showed him what AIGEIA were doing, as it meant even had he started, they'd have been behind the curve.

mp3guy

DemonOfTheFall wrote:

nvidia and ati arent pioneering the PPUs, its a company called Ageia. Seems like yet another thing to bleed money out of ppl if you ask me, isnt a dual core 3800+ fast enough to do the physics?!? theres a whole core sitting there doing nothing...

+1, no point wasting your CPU

astrofool

there's a ten fold difference between what the most powerful cpu can do, and what these dedicated boards can do.

Pretty soon the cpu's job will be limited to AI and I/O, and background services, gaming wise.

gizmo

Indeed, the CPU isnt a physics processing unit just like its not a graphics processing unit. Its only now that we've gotten to the stage where systems are capable of using these high end physics that developers are getting worried about performance so in steps AEGIA with physX. One problem though, while they were meant to get support from Havok on the software side this has not been forthcoming so I don't see it becoming extremely popular until that happens. They have, however, just inked a deal with BFG to distribute the PhysX add-in cards...as the press release said..

Pricing and Availability
BFG Technologies plans to offer stand-alone PCI cards with the AGEIA PhysX processor and 128MB of local memory, which is used for storing and processing physics data during game play. Products will be available at the end of this year. Pricing and other product details will be announced at that time.

Khannie

mp3guy wrote:

+1, no point wasting your CPU

Next gen games will all (probably) be threaded, and therefore make use of two or more cores anyway.

The CPU is a general piece of computing hardware. No matter how fast it is, it'll look like a tortoise compared to hardware accelerated kit (like a graphics card or a PPU).

Pity to hear that about havok. They have a decent engine from what I understand. PPU's are the way forward, and there'll only be 1 or 2 supported engines.

Edit: My post's a bit late. Nice to hear that the PPU's will be out soon though.

po0k

Aegia have they're own supported API,which they're psuhing at developers looking for physics middleware.
There have been mumblings of Havok being ported to take advantage of the PhysX ppu, but I don't think it will happen anytime soon.

Re: PPU Vs CPU, there is a massive difference. One is an array of small fast logic units all working in parallel and the other is a massive powerhouse for general dirty work.
It's like comparing a squadron of F/A-18s with a B-52.
Right tools for the job etc.

I'd like to see a neural net processor next, or network accelerators (hardware SFTP 'server').