AMD: 'Why Don’t We Buy Ageia?'

[zekrahminator]

When Intel announced plans to buy out Havok back in September, AMD began talking to Havok themselves to try and get the physics company in their hands. Talks faltered when Intel offered Havok $100 Million USD, and Intel acquired Havok and a lot of Intellectual Property. Not one to be left in the dust, AMD is currently in talks with Ageia. If Ageia offers AMD a reasonable price, they will be more than happy to acquire it. After all, according to AMD's head of developer relations, "I would say that they [Ageia] would probably grind themselves out of business in a year or so, but now they have an opportunity to sell themselves for a lot of money instead". If AMD does end up acquiring Ageia, they will get quite a lot of Intellectual Property, a new market segment, and an advantage for AMD developers. If talks falter, though, Ageia would more likely than not receive offers from the likes of NVIDIA, Sony, and several other hardware/software developers.

Source: CustomPC

[freaksavior]

by by amd.....

Since AMD bought ATI it almost killed them, so if they buy ageia, i wouldn't be surprised if they go bankrupt

[panchoman]

they're right about ageia, physx didn't really take off, and it'd be better off becoming part of the spider platform, etc. etc.

[cdawall]

it would be really cool if they bought them and integrated the card into there mobos that would sell very well since it well came with the mobo

[X-TeNDeR]

I'm not exactly in-the-know where it comes to Ageia's products and technology, but i think that AMD guy is right. they don't have too many options in the visible future.
I'm not sure about the need for PPU, but i guess AMD could turn it into a more viable solution, if they manage to buy them.

The Physx chip is nothing special in comparison to what nVidia/ATI has, the software and driver that handles it ain't half bad though, perhaps it's more the software patents they are interested in, either way sell up or face being bust in under 12 months for Ageia.

[panchoman]

i think ati might be implementing physx right onto their cards, and having the concept of physx would be good really good for CFX hybrid, where good physx processing elements would be a good thing

You might be right, since Intel has bought Havoc with their software physics engine is pretty much industry standard for games developers now, software physics is always going to be faster on Intel chips now since they optimize the Havoc engine in favour of Intel chips, AMD can't really do much about that.

[JacKz5o]

Maybe AMD will take Ageia's physics technology and integrate it directly into its CPU or GPUs?

[PVTCaboose1337]

Originally Posted by JacKz5o

Maybe AMD will take Ageia's physics technology and integrate it directly into its CPU or GPUs?

That would be cool!

[Ketxxx]

Integrating Physics operations into a mobo chipset whould be my hazard guess for AMD considering this. Putting it into a graphics chip is far too predictable, and seems more viable integrating into a mobo. That way even if you dont have a geat graphics card, the physics processing is still there to help. In all honesty though, unless AMD are planning a paid installments plan, buying Ageia will bankrupt them, their bleeding cash at a disturbing rate already.

[lemonadesoda]

AMD will probably buy Ageia... as a integration cover-up for their overpriced acquisition, and poor management, of ATI take-over.

[freaksavior]

Originally Posted by freaksavior

by by amd.....

Since AMD bought ATI it almost killed them, so if they buy ageia, i wouldn't be surprised if they go bankrupt

............^............

[Ketxxx]

Bit of speculation, what if (yes its a "what if...") AMD has been working with Ageia behind closed doors on something and that something is almost ready to go, but AMD want to buy them for future development under the AMD name. IMO IF this is the case, its very clever, leaves everybody thinking wtf, while giving absolutely zero heads up to the competition.

[WarEagleAU]

Agreed Ketxxx. Not to mention, this could be a nice ace in the hole for AMD. Granted, they probably wont have to pay as much as intel did, but the software, patents and integration into the spider platform could potentially pay off huge dividends.

[Ketxxx]

Also, combine that with running a Phenom with an FSB of 333MHz or faster, suddenly seems quite tasty eh? I bet a Phenom with an FSB to match a C2D at a comparable clock to a C2D would see both CPUs neck and neck. People all too easily forget Phenom is running on a lousy 200MHz.

Yes but Nehalem with Intel's integrated memory controller due out in around 6 months time would totally blow Phenom away, unfortunately for everyone, except Intel

[Ketxxx]

Who cares? If Phenom performance is comparable, and OCs well for much less, I can see where most people will jump.

The bad news is it's far from comparable to Nehalem, it'll have to slash the reported prices significantly to compete in a time when they need to making large profits!

Early indications are even the penryn Yorkfield chips beats the Phenom with ease.

[Ketxxx]

I still havent seen a single reviewer with enough sence to reduce the multi on a Phenom and increase FSB, then compare it to the closest multi\FSB match C2D, hence, I will not buy into anything until someone does.

[lemonadesoda]

The Ageia hardware isnt anything unique... there are dozens of specialist floating point math chips that do this sort of stuff. The only thing Ageia has really got is their SDK and tie in with "games". Not much there for AMD really. Better to just go any buy a REAL math team, and pawn the SuperPi benchmarks by having some true vector math co-pro built into their CPUs.

Ageia is NOT NEEDED to get AMD out of the doldrums. Sounds like a bit of diversionary tactic to me.

AMD board should fall on their swords.

[AsRock]

That be cool if it's added to the GPU of a ATI card. BUT all i have heard is people getting lower FPS while using one of these cards. So my question is would this slow down ATI cards ?. Due to CPU or what ever but slower in the end.

[Fuse-Wire]

I think AMD are buying all these companies up to develop the ultimate system. mind you i think Bill Gates is trying to take over the world how surreal!!!

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

Originally Posted by AsRock

That be cool if it's added to the GPU of a ATI card. BUT all i have heard is people getting lower FPS while using one of these cards. So my question is would this slow down ATI cards ?. Due to CPU or what ever but slower in the end.

this is because all physx cards currently do is generate extra detail to be rendered.

[imperialreign]

well, seeing as how ATI has stouted that their GPUS are supposedly superior to nVidia's when it comes to physics processing . . . this could put ATI into a niche in the GPU realm . . .

granted, we've yet to see anything in the real world yet.

physics will be a big thing a couple of years down the road, as I see it, and AMD aquiring Ageia might help them out in the long run . . . if they can survive the initial fallout of the merger.