AMD tosses around the idea of acquiring Ageia

While it's apparently still quite a ways beyond the realm of possibility, Custom PC is reporting that AMD has at least tossed around the idea of acquiring Ageia, which makes the PhysX physics processing unit and corresponding PhysX software. That doesn't seem to be an entirely new development, however, with AMD's Richard Huddy saying, 'we've had that discussion, yes. It's a discussion that goes round every three months – someone turns to me and says 'why don't we buy Ageia?' and I go through the arguments about why we should and why we shouldn't.' The biggest stumbling block, not surprisingly, is price, with Intel's recent acquisition of Havok weighing heavily into the equation. That, Huddy says, gave Ageia a roughly equivalent value of $100 million, a value Huddy says is about $90 million too much. He still doesn't rule out an acquisition altogether, however, although it seems that there'll have to be a pretty big shift in valuations before AMD's interest is really piqued.

[Jhongerkong @ Nov 21st 2007 4:39PM]

This really makes me fucking angry.

[E71 @ Nov 21st 2007 7:13PM]

Me too. Besides, who needs to waste a slot on a physics card when you have 4 cores on the CPU... I'm with John Carmack on this issue.

[podphreak @ Nov 22nd 2007 4:04AM]

Intel Future System:
One Quad Core CPU
Dual graphics cards (1 physics, 1 graphics)

AMD Future System:
Two Quad Core CPUs
4 graphics cards (god only knows what they're each used for..)
1 physx card

See a diversion here? Simple and elegant... Frankenstein monster 2000w per second power consumption and they will probably have equal performance if current trends continue. Great for the consumer!!!

[Monkeywoman @ Nov 21st 2007 4:41PM]

HAHAHAHAH AMD cant afford 100million dollars! thats funny, if they didnt buy ati and destroy a dam good product(radeon cards) they could have money to buy ageia; and destroy a dam usless product. LMAOOO

[steve @ Nov 21st 2007 4:43PM]

It's not a matter of not being able to afford it, but whether its worth that much. Most of us could afford a 1000 dollar watch, but would we actually consider it? not likely.

[JohnTitor @ Nov 21st 2007 6:02PM]

they can afford Aegia but it's a matter of the risk. They haven't broken even and actually may not have finished paying for ATi yet

and they didn't ruin Radeons. ATi was on their way down with R600 delays and that's why they approved the merge with AMD in hopes that they would get the edge over nVIDIA however that really hasn't materialized yet because of AMD still needing to fend off intel. For now it's ATi helping AMD because now they have a lot of new technologies from ATi, not just GPUs

[Zeus the God @ Nov 21st 2007 10:20PM]

ATI might be behind in performance at the moment, but to say that they destroyed it is completely and utterly wrong. I'm a pure Nvidia fan, but with the new 3850/70 with it's performance/cost ratio, its right on track with the 8800GT which is a PURE SIGN that ATI is catching back up.

As far as PPUs being useless- NOT TRUE. What about us gamers with older computers (like me, for example) who have maybe a Pentium 4 (Hyper Threading 3.2GHz in my case) who don't A) have the money, or B) the time to upgrade? A PPU would, in this case, be a wise choice for these newer physics intensive games. Now, if you have a 2/4 core processor, it might very well be a waste, but not for those who don't have those super fast CPUs.

[steve @ Nov 21st 2007 4:46PM]

I wish I was in a position where I could say "Hey, lets buy Aegia"

[Nathan @ Nov 21st 2007 5:04PM]

I'm so hard up for cash I would be happy to be in a position where I could say "Hey, let's buy a Kia!"

Seriously, Thanksgiving dinner for me is some Chinese news paper and apple cores pressed into the shape of a turkey.

[Totalfixation @ Nov 21st 2007 5:35PM]

For some reason Aegia minds me of the Aegia stepping where it was notorious for overclocking. maybe they should buy it, probably will add some good luck. =) (yes i know, luck and smart business practices don't mix)

[Magallanes @ Nov 22nd 2007 12:10PM]

i agreed but i don't known why people still call Ageia as Aeiga ;-)

[Randomness @ Nov 21st 2007 4:56PM]

meh, I think they're looking for value where there is none.

[waiownsyou @ Nov 21st 2007 4:57PM]

Damn... 100 million for a company that's dedicated to computer physics. This is maddness!

(Then AMD yells that this is Sparta and kicks me down a random bottomless pit in the middle of nowhere.)

[steve @ Nov 21st 2007 6:32PM]

No more than you'd deserve for bring that up again...

[Natedog @ Nov 21st 2007 5:13PM]

DEAR GOD NO!!!

[Noot @ Nov 21st 2007 5:18PM]

Err, I don't mean to be rude here, but sentences like this are really silly:
"While it's apparently still quite a ways beyond the realm of possibility"

Definition of "Possibility":
"Capability of existing or happening or being true"

This is rather inconsistent with the entire topic, which is outlining the fact that AMD has indeed considered it... thus making the acquisition not nearly as "Impossible" as that sentence would have us believe.

[Wolfticket @ Nov 21st 2007 5:41PM]

Maybe AMD are trying to produce some sorta semi integrated platform.
They already have Processors, ATI Graphics - Physics hardware would seem like the next step.

[Ayle @ Nov 21st 2007 5:59PM]

What the hell is AMD doing???

[mythicflux @ Nov 21st 2007 6:06PM]

Building a platform. Imagine a notebook/desktop using the Fusion processor AMD is working to release in 2009. A single processor with 2 CPU's, 1 GPU, 1 Physics core. This would be a perfect platform for OEMs to create computers with. In terms of performance companies like Dell can buy a cheap mainboard and CPU and have the majority of their market capable of running anything from games to spreadsheets.

[JohnTitor @ Nov 21st 2007 6:02PM]

...and I was kinda joking when I made the comment of a Fusion CPU,GPU,PPU back with the intel buying Havok article

[Tired_ @ Nov 21st 2007 6:16PM]

In other news, Engadget commenter Tired_ tosses around the idea of buying some expensive thing he can't afford. In a stunning reversal, Tired_ decides not to buy the expensive thing because he can't afford it. AMD had no comment.

[Kax02 @ Nov 21st 2007 9:18PM]

Kinda funny given that they were on about how they didn't need a dedicated physics card and that users would be able to run old PCI-E radeon cards as PPU's.

Yet another idea / avenue by ATI / AMD pitched down the drain much like their acquisition of a Z-RAM license and the possibility of including it in their processor cache designs.

[Darkest Daze @ Nov 21st 2007 9:24PM]

Wouldn't it be smarter to just wait another 6-12 months when Ageia is folds. They can buy them for $100 instead of $100 million.

[melvz @ Nov 21st 2007 10:43PM]

Go AMD!!! You're only good at squandering money... so go ahead and buyout another crappy company...

[futurepastnow @ Nov 22nd 2007 11:26AM]

Now, now, AMD... are mom and dad going to have to take your credit card away?

[Yakumo @ Nov 22nd 2007 3:30PM]

I don't think PPU's will go down so well on older systems, I too only have an HT 3.2 p4, and a 7600 AGP.

The problem is that PPU support is only being added to newer games, to increase the number of objects and effects kicking around. That then increases the workload on your GPU rendering all the objects still, and newer games are obviously more and more eye candy heavy, and less and less optimised for older systems.

They might break out, but for now it's only good for adding extra rubble.

AMD's mostly likely to consider buying them to add the PPU chip onto a new GFX board along side their GPU (or scrapping it and sticking to improving and pushing their GPU accelerated physics API's) simply to prevent Nvidia doing it first, and crushing them.

[fred @ Nov 22nd 2007 7:20PM]

proprietary physics processor isn't going to fly. let alone if amd tries to push it into the marketplace. theyd be better off making sure the regular cpu's remain competitive with intels. they are slipping behind. with so many extra cores who cares about having an extra physics processor, we'll take the physics our cpus can handle. no killer physics app has been created for gaming. we've been stacking boxes for ages now..seriously its not that fun.

[Bla @ Nov 23rd 2007 10:40AM]

I would imagine AMD are more interested in the technical expertise, not so much existing PPU designs or future PPU designs, but integration of Physics optimisation systems into there chips. After all Havoc don't have a dedicated PPU and Intel don't seem to mind. This may be smart for AMD if it is to remain competitive with Intel. However I believe for that price AMD should be looking for talented yet less established Software developers. Physics programming is physics programming, you don't need a PPU to deliver Physics in today's games, and If Intel get there way, you wont tomorrow. It will be in the one package. No loss of revenue to third party hardware developers, completed dominance of the consumers Intel computer. Unfortunately with the subsequent stagnation in innovative development; Joe consumer's worst nightmare. Come on AMD, get the finger out and innovate. Think bigger than the bottom line, think revolutionary impact. Make me want to ditch my 1000 Euro Intel PC for your vision.