Physics processing unit to demo at E3

[MjM]

Physics processing unit to demo at E3
Unreal 3 engine to use it in early 2006
By Fuad Abazovic in Canada: Monday 18 April 2005, 11:09

MIGHTY TIM Sweeney, the developer of the Unreal 3 engine, said that his company is ready to embrace physics processing unit marchitecture and that it has been using NovodeX physics API for a long time now. It is using it in a new Unreal 3 engine that is still under development. We saw some demos of the Unreal 3 engine back in April 2004 when Nvidia launched NV40 and it looked astonishing.

Tim said that the next generation Unreal engine powered with next generation graphic, richer content needs better physics as well. You will be able to experience this in early 2006, once Tim finishes Unreal 3 engine and once when games based on this engine gets released. They will however be able to use a hardware Physics Processing Unit (PPU).

The PPU is definitely the next step in making games look good and senior Intel executives have told us that its firm likes the fact that there will be a dedicated piece of hardware that will accelerate physics calculations in games.

We saw some software demos personally, and it looked cool enough to impress us. AEGIA, the company behind this hardware, is going to show it publicly together with few games at the upcoming Los Angeles based E3 gaming show.

This will be the first time we'll see games using it and technology demos using the real hardware and this is an exciting prospect. µ

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=22592​

Pretty cool that they got their act together and will have games supporting this hardware asap. Should make games look and play nicer?

Always saddening though to see how fast my PC bought this year is quickly becoming an antique.

 

[duffers20]

This is really quite exciting to see, teh next big thing in computer hardware! There is so much going on in this area at hte moment its often hard to keep up with it, dual core cpus, physics engines, whats next!

 

[Shamrock]

The Matrix. It is that simple.

 

[T.H.C.138]

anyone see Ghost in the Shell?

by the year 2032...

 

[Murray_H]

I hope the consumer doesn't get bummed by multiple games requiring multiple cards (e.g. one for havok based games, one for novodex etc.)

 

[Shamrock]

That would be awful. I would not pay for multiple cards based on the requirements of a specific game. Thats saying for a refrigerator a person must buy the doors/shelving units/motor separate from the actual refrigerator.

 

[T.H.C.138]

ati or nvidia?

its going to be the same as when video cards were getting big, only now its physics..graphics are doing just fine on their own

but I don't think that havok is going for it (hardware)yet..the PPU card wouldn't understand the software so it would probably go to the CPU just like it does now..

until the rival PPU company starts up..

BTW this is all pure speculation on my part

 

[NikolaX]

can't whait for E3 , so much woot tings going on

 

[Adidajs]

i'm curious. is the physics card pci? or something else? oh. i guess it's built onto a video card.

 

[Muhahahaha]

the ppu will go into pci-e 1x - 4x slots. Of course intel loves this, they will probably integrate it into one of their uber-cored processors within the next decade.

 

[Synthos]

why just have a ppu? people have already been asking for a dedicated processor for firewall and antivirus. why not combine the ppu and security chip?

 

[kirovman]

The question is, how often will you have to get a new one?

If the first one out can last for years, fine, but if they want you to get new ones each year, just so they can put more bricks and pieces in their explosions, it'd be an extra burden.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

The question is, how often will you have to get a new one?

If the first one out can last for years, fine, but if they want you to get new ones each year, just so they can put more bricks and pieces in their explosions, it'd be an extra burden.

The initial amount of physical bodies is impressive, upto 40,000 of them. If you think this number will double every year, then there will be enough death and destruction happiness come 2010.

 

[DrDevin]

In one of the newer or newest MaximumPC magazines it says the chip will come in both PCI and PCI-E flavours. If these chips become sucessfull then all we need is an AI processor and the CPU is damn near worthless! What does it help? not AI not physics not graphics and my sound card processes sound. I know it is an overexageration but think about it.

Also as most of you know it will feature 128Mb of GDDR 3 memory and will cost between $100 - $400 when it is scheduled for realease at the end of the year.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

an AI processor and the CPU is damn near worthless!

I never thought of an AI processor, maybe I should add that in my sig

 

[Killing2Live]

I wonder how much these really are gonna be and if they will eventually just be embedded with the processor, and if that does happen than sucks to be the people that went out and bought 400 dollar PPU cards.