Ageia announces PhysX 100M processor for gaming laptops

Although it's been well over a year since the Ageia PhysX processor made any noise at all over on the desktop front, the firm is taking full advantage of the exposure provided at the Games Convention in Germany to unveil the PhysX 100M processor for "high-performance" gaming lappies. According to the company, this new device aims to provide "the most intensely realistic gaming and entertainment experience to PC gamers" on-the-go, but the nitty-gritty we were hoping for simply hasn't been divulged just yet. Of course, it's fairly safe to assume that we'll only be seeing this unit packed within beastly gaming laptops that can't stray far from an AC outlet, but only time will tell which manufacturer takes the bait first.

[Via ExtremeTech]

[Micah Neumark @ Aug 22nd 2007 4:41PM]

I think the best way for a PPU to be the most used is to make a PPU that is an ExpressCard (34 mm preferably, since I own a macbook pro). Not many laptops are going to put this in, but I can imagine many buying a PPU ExpressCard. I would.

Since ExpressCard goes straight to the motherboard (from what I understand) this should be perfectly speedy. The only questions are of cost and ability to shrink the PPU to this size.

What do you guys think?

[nih @ Aug 22nd 2007 4:51PM]

What is this 'straight to the motherboard' nonsense you're using to rate device connection speed?

[Micah Neumark @ Aug 22nd 2007 5:00PM]

What I mean is that it is connected in the same way that PCI Express is, where as PCMCIA was significantly slower than the desktop alternative that was around at the time.

[Bilal @ Aug 22nd 2007 5:22PM]

i think dats good! i recently put one in my pc, made a difference in da games dat suppport it!!! made them act more "real" if u no wat i mean! needs waaaay more game support tho!!
even thought the 360 and the ps3 have the chip in them!! dats why gears of wars sooooo goooood!!!

[Wolfticket @ Aug 22nd 2007 4:45PM]

*slow hand clap*

[Maestro @ Aug 22nd 2007 4:46PM]

Hey, and no one can buy this PPU as well.

[nih @ Aug 22nd 2007 4:49PM]

$500 racing strip[es for the inside of your laptop.

Go spend your money on blow and hookers, magic beans or anything else more useful or credible.

[scott @ Aug 22nd 2007 4:51PM]

Seriously, has anyone ever actually checked the performance increases from a PPU?

[Rususeruru @ Aug 22nd 2007 4:55PM]

Dell... er uh I mean Alienware will be the only/primary adopter.

[roc ingersol @ Aug 22nd 2007 5:01PM]

with all those santa rosa laptops with an entire CPU core twiddling its thumbs most of the time, who needs a dedicated PPU?

[Matthew @ Aug 22nd 2007 5:09PM]

This ageia physX card is in the Dell XPS M1730 as well as 2 GeForce 8700m SLI-ed. It's gonna be freaking sweet (and huge and ugly)

[Bilal @ Aug 22nd 2007 5:13PM]

i think dats good! i recently put one in my pc, made a difference in da games dat suppport it!!! made them act more "real" if u no wat i mean! needs waaaay more game support tho!!
even thought the 360 and the ps3 have the chip in them!! dats why gears of wars sooooo goooood!!!

[Ayle @ Aug 22nd 2007 5:33PM]

y r u typing lk dat? More seriously the ps3 and 360 dont have this chip in them and don't need them, they have enough firepower to handle whatever physics simulation you might want to throw at them....

[Bilal @ Aug 22nd 2007 5:57PM]

first of all i am a kid and second of all there are a few games on te 360 and the ps3 that support the architechture of physx

clerly sez it on their site

http://www.ageia.com/physx/titles.html

[Matt @ Aug 22nd 2007 6:09PM]

Being a kid is NO excuse. If you know the words well enough to turn "that" into "dat," I don't care what age you are. Use the right words. The faster you grow up and realize nobody wants to talk with somebody who talks or types like that, the faster you realize the entire world and your entire existence depends on the ability to successfully communicate, the sooner you realize nobody will hire you when you write "went 2 dat hi skool" on your applications, the better off you'll be.

[Bilal @ Aug 22nd 2007 6:23PM]

ok then... let me quote what you just said "y r u typing lk dat? More seriously the ps3 and 360 dont have this chip in them and don't need them" your kinda contradicting yourself, so you must be a dumb F@*& then, any way this is way of subject and stop trying to "give" advice on things you dont understand yourself, clearly showing you have those problems in your own life
and i am able to write as i wish, there is no "code" for writing in blogs you write how you please and express how you want to, its just alot quicker to type the way i do

[White_Pheonix @ Aug 22nd 2007 6:41PM]

"... there is no "code" for writing in blogs you write how you please and express how you want to ..."

Actually, there is an unwritten code. It's something along the lines of "If what you write makes the reader's brain hurt due to grammar, spelling, or punctuation (or lack thereof), don't post it." Aside from that, yes, you can express yourself however you want, until the owner of the blog decides to ban you.

[Matt @ Aug 22nd 2007 7:06PM]

I'd also like to point out that I am not the same person as the first commenter, so your assessment that I must be a "dumb fvck" is patently invalid. Thanks for playing. I don't mind you complaining about the first person, but I knew exactly what I typed and exactly what I was talking about when I did so. I won't bother trying to respond to the rest.

Seriously, though - spelling and grammar are your friend. I'm not trying to bust your balls. It will help you. Sorry if that pisses you off somehow.

[Constable Odo @ Aug 22nd 2007 11:43PM]

Hey, Bart Simpson, Principal Skinner's making you stay after school to write two hundred times on the blackboard "I must learn to spell correctly or I'll turn into Cletus Spuckler." Lisa's gonna tell and Homer's gonna strangle you when you get home. Haaaa-ha.

Your dearest pal,
Nelson Muntz

[triacontahedron @ Aug 23rd 2007 3:06PM]

If you ask me Bilal is somewhat right. English language needs to update its spelling badly. Nowadays you have to remember spelling of too many words. Basically pronunciation does not correlate well with written language. If you don't believe me try to read the following poem http://www.learnenglish.de/EZine/Joke3.htm One of the problems in this poem is for example word "tear" can be pronounced in 2 different ways and mean 2 different things. Considering the fact that old people are too conservative and shortsighted to make any changes the only hope that young people on the internet will eventually "update" spelling.

[Bilal @ Aug 23rd 2007 5:14PM]

aaaannnyyy way this is waaaay of subject!! and i like the physx card!!!! dats all!!!!!!

[Daniel Foster @ Aug 22nd 2007 5:30PM]

The PPU for the desktop is a waste of money. Why would you want one in your notebook? Dell will probably stick this thing in that fugly notebook leaked over a week ago.

[adam_anon @ Aug 22nd 2007 6:08PM]

A lot of people believe that this technology (hardwarewise) is dead already. Once 4-core CPUs become mainstream there will be little need for hardware accelerated physics. They may still be selling the API the way HAVOC does but it'll be run on one of the cores, no need for separate hardware. Just the way it's done on PS3 and Xbox360 - there is no separate hardware to run PhysX on PS3 and Xbox360

A.

[Oliver Sayers @ Aug 22nd 2007 6:13PM]

Only a matter of time and this will be in an Alienware ALX.

[dj-kenpo @ Aug 22nd 2007 7:24PM]

just one more company trying to make a living, instead of doing it by honest competition apparently they gave up formt he start and turned to used car salesmen tactics, ya no, totally, you really need this, your computer won't play games without it at all.

go away, you're not wanted. I wanted cheaper faster tech, not more expensive/bloated tech.

[NewJohnny @ Aug 22nd 2007 7:57PM]

I was just looking at an old Sigma Designs DVD playback card from 1997. Separate pci cards were required to play dvds (unless you had one of those brand new Pentium 90s), and they cost about $100-$300 at the time. This is the fate that waits for Ageia.

[morcheeba @ Aug 22nd 2007 9:46PM]

I agree with you, but I'm expanding on what you said.

DVD playback moved in to either the CPU (software only decode) or the graphics card. I think the PhysX will move to either one of those, too. I think Ageia is betting it'll move to the graphics card so they can license their IP; otherwise, they'll be out of luck.

[Paris K @ Aug 22nd 2007 9:46PM]

You can't really compare games with DVD playback.
The DVD format arrived and lasted for years. Processors became faster over those years while DVD playback didn't require any extra power than when it was initially introduced.

With games its different. As long as you give game developers more power they'll use it all up in no time and then ask for more. So by the time CPUs have the power to handle what a PPU is currently doing, the PPU of that time will be able to do much more and so it shouldn't become obsolete.

[PM @ Aug 22nd 2007 11:30PM]

This is completely useless. The desktop PhysX card has yet to catch on...let alone a laptop mobile version. Like some posters above me had stated...in the future as we get more cores in the processor, the need for a dedicated PPU won't be needed at all. Heck, if all the games currently were *actually* optimzed for both of the cores in a current average C2D processor...you could have some awesome physics in a game. But sadly, thats not the truth.

Most games (on my Macbook Pro), currently use one core heavily, leaving the other core doing nothing...or both the cores will be at 60% usage give and take. If the game was to be optimized so that one core is used for physics only, and the other core for other GPU related calls, and other processing tasks...it would be a lot smoother.

There is no upside to this other than the fact that whatever laptop it's going to be going in is going to become even more fatter and uglier (pointing at you, Mike & Co. )