Physics Acceleration Heats Up: Intel to Purchase Havok

[maroon1]

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.


DailyTech - Physics Acceleration Heats Up: Intel to Purchase Havok

 

[veg1992]

awesomeness!! but is this final?

 

[Wildside]

uh oh, AGEIA is in trouble. I'm having second thoughts of not getting the PhysX Accelerator due to this article. I'm seeing AGEIA getting out of business but i hope it doesnt become a reality.

 

[maroon1]

I hope that Intel adds physics SIMD extensions to their future processors after they purchase Havok

 

[Invisible]

uh oh, AGEIA is in trouble. I'm having second thoughts of not getting the PhysX Accelerator due to this article. I'm seeing AGEIA getting out of business but i hope it doesnt become a reality.

you were planning on getting one of those piece of junk?

 

[Wildside]

Intel buys Havok (how much $?)

AMD buys ATI, possibly buying AGEIA??!!

if AMD can buy AGEIA then that would be cool but i doubt it.

 

[Wildside]

you were planning on getting one of those piece of junk?

sure, its cheap, it's like $150 n up. I'm planning on getting a game called Hellgate: London *Diablo 1 n 2 creators FTW* n they said that they will use the PhysX Accelerator for their game.

y would i not get a PhysX for one game? I'm hyped up just to play one game that utilizes the card. But u know, i have yet to decide on getting the card because of how much a differ is with n without it. Plus, i have no computer so when i pre-order Hellgate: London Collector's Edition, it will be sitting in dust for 2-3 months until i get my computer repaired n fully upgraded.

however, a physx hardware card isnt necessary a bad thing, everyone has their own opinions n tastes n my taste is to either have the card or not just for one game, so back off!

 

[Invisible]

y would i not get a PhysX for one game?

because, i've seen it at work, there is a noticable difference, but not as noticable as spending that extra $150 on a better GFX card

 

[Wildside]

because, i've seen it at work, there is a noticable difference, but not as noticable as spending that extra $150 on a better GFX card

im planning on getting the 2950 Pro so ive got it all planned out, just not the physx card because im not too sure about it.

FYI, i just got a job at Cold Stone n im still in training. Next week is when i get my own work schedule n then i will get paid $7.50 n up. I've got NOTHING to pay for: no insurances (yet), no bills, nothing. This is my big opportunity to fully upgrade my computer n get it up n running again because it's been hard looking for work for a year n attending school. I may not have another chance to be able to fully upgrade my computer, once i get my own car, pay for insurance n bills n stuff.

 

[Invisible]

<3 coldstone !!
just make sure you don't make a quick buy on the 2950 pro, wait for benchmarks my friend