Well, It's sorta a PPU(Physics Processing Unit), it uses the 7900 chip to do the physics, but it is still a step forward...check out the article, it is based off what Nividia is claiming it can do, so it isn't fact, but still a nice dream.

http://www.rojakpot.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=303&pgno=0

It isn't as great as Nvidia would like you to believe.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=30434

Hey thanks for that, I knew it couldn't be all that, I was looking for the catch, and here it is...

Though I agree with him, even if this isn't what it claims, it will bring it forward, and potentially, to a real PPU.

Yeah the main issue is support in games since most users are still running on 6600 or lower, game developers can't make story content that use this hardware if the average user can't see it.

Agreed untill it becomes more mainstream you wont see it used alot. Its like the whole pixel shader thing they have been on the top end cards for a while now but games have just now been leaning on them more (makes me happy to see though) I can hardly wait for there to be some sort of physics processing done in real time ! Nvidia I think is on the right track I believe the fastest route to general adoption is to mount the physics processor or process to the graphics card. Especialy since it sits on the fastest bus on the system... I also would be interested in knowing of more then games would make use of this newer tech ? maybe it could be used with cad/cam design to allow for testing things virtualy before production ? (I know this would involve some proffesional level card and not your game card) All very interesting

Even if it wasn't your game card, but a professional card instead, it would still be the same tech. I give this 5 or 6 years to catch on to the mainstream...maybe sooner with the PS3...if that ever comes out...
But like you said, it's a step forward.

Still won't come to PC's for a while I don't know if I agree with 5 or 6 years. Maybe 1 or 2 if nVidia can get this tech in the lower class graphics cards it would speed adoption.

nVidia will have this out ASAP. Which could be a year or two. What I mean is it will take 5 or 6 years for it to become mainstream, 1 or 2 to be introduced, another year or two to be perfected, and finally another year or two to be full adopted...thats how I see it going...

I understand that but if nVidia is smart they will push this feature in the low end cards and adoption will happen very quickly. It is really a moot point, once vista comes out it will demand a faster graphics card forcing users to upgrade, if nVidia puts it in all their next gen G80 harware that will be Vista compatible, games that are coded for Vista will be able to support it. This will pretty much eliminate compatibility problems. Nvidia even thought it just got delayed again will be out sometime in 2007 a year from now.

I saw this about 6 months ago and even got some videos showing off what it was all about, although NVidia wasn't the one introducing it... at least I don't think they were...

Your talking about Ageia

What is Ageia anyways?

They have a PCI Physics CPU with different versions the extreme gamer one had more ram (I havent seen them for sale but I think I remember that was what they where planning) I dont think they would be able to sell these though... its a tough sell no games and it essentualy does nothing untill games support it.

Edit: I did find this little clip about Ageia they are comming out soon with that add in card there is even a picture in this article.

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?...ad589a2237b8bda

We heard about this a year or two ago at GDC. All of the game developers I know are excited about it, but you are right, none of them have begun using them in their games yet. But at least we are all thinking about it, so very soon I see support coming in games. Even if it isn't used to its full potential, some will start to allow the option to turn it on (like many games have the option to use software or hardware graphics accelleration).

I won't be making games professionally myself for at least another year (still in college), but I'm still trying to look into all of this. I believe that one of my instructors (one of the lead programmers for Microsoft's XBOX 360 team) mentioned an SDK for it, or something like a physics interface for the new DirectX, or something, but these things are unconfirmed. Should they be true, look for PPU-supporting games as early as next year, I'd imagine.

They have an API but I don't know where to get it.

Ageia is giving the API away for free! Yay!

Ageia's PhysX API

Just click "Download" on the bar above, follow the circular link to an application: straight and forward, email and name. Then, follow the instructions the email provides.

They also have some physics tools available on the site.

Signing up takes anywhere from 1 to 3 days for confirmation.

So far the best version of physics processing I have seen is ATI's if you happen to have a dual PCIe mobo and two PCIe ATI video cards (they dont even have to be the same version of video card) say you had a X1800 and went out and bought a X1900 you could use the old one for just physics... I will post a link to the article later.