Ageia, founded in 2002, was a

fabless semiconductor company Fabless manufacturing is the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing their fabrication (or ''fab'') to a specialized manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry. These foundries are typically, but not exclu ...

. In 2004, Ageia acquired NovodeX, the company who created PhysX – a

Physics Processing Unit A physics processing unit (PPU) is a dedicated microprocessor designed to handle the calculations of physics, especially in the physics engine of video games. It is an example of hardware acceleration. Examples of calculations involving a PPU mig ...

chip capable of performing game physics calculations much faster than general purpose

CPUs A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, and ...

; they also licensed out the

PhysX PhysX is an open-source realtime physics engine middleware SDK developed by Nvidia as a part of Nvidia GameWorks software suite. Initially, video games supporting PhysX were meant to be accelerated by PhysX PPU (expansion cards designed by Ag ...

SDK (formerly NovodeX SDK), a large physics

middleware Middleware is a type of computer software that provides services to software applications beyond those available from the operating system. It can be described as "software glue". Middleware makes it easier for software developers to implement co ...

library for game production. Ageia was noted as being the first company to develop hardware designed to offload calculation of

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

physics from the CPU to a separate chip, commercializing it in the form of the Ageia PhysX, a discreet

PCIe PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe or PCI-e, is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard, designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X and AGP bus standards. It is the common mo ...

card. Soon after the Ageia implementation of their

processor,

ATI Ati or ATI may refer to: * Ati people, a Negrito ethnic group in the Philippines **Ati language (Philippines), the language spoken by this people group ** Ati-Atihan festival, an annual celebration held in the Philippines *Ati language (China), a ...

and

Nvidia Nvidia CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...

announced their own physics implementations. On September 1, 2005, AGEIA acquired Meqon, a physics development company based in Sweden. Known for its forward-looking features and multi-platform support, Meqon earned international acclaim for its physics technology incorporated in 3D Realms’ Duke Nukem Forever and Saber Interactive's TimeShift. On February 4, 2008, Nvidia announced that it would acquire Ageia.Smalley, Tim. "Nvidia set to acquire Ageia" bit-tech.net, 4 February 2008. Accessed at http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/02/04/nvidia_set_to_acquire_ageia/1 on 5 February 2008. On February 13, 2008, the merger was finalized.Nvidia finalises Ageia deal, details future plans
Tim Smalley, 14th February 2008, bittech The PhysX engine is now known as Nvidia PhysX, and has been adapted to be run on Nvidia's GPUs.

External links

AGEIA PhysX Physics Processing Unit PreviewAGEIA in 2007 – Is This the Year of the PPU?BFG Ageia PhysX CardPhysX In GRAW 2
{{Nvidia Semiconductor companies of the United States Fabless semiconductor companies Technology companies established in 2002 Companies disestablished in 2008 Companies based in Santa Clara, California Defunct companies based in California 2002 establishments in California