After the announcement that NVIDIA would acquire PhysX physics software/hardware developer AGEIA earlier this month, rumors ran rampant that the video card developer would integrate the PhysX technology straight into its video cards but when will we see them hit the market?
Over on The Tech Report, they have word from NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang that the GeForce 8 cards will be able to run PhysX.
"We’re working toward the physics-engine-to-CUDA port as we speak. And we intend to throw a lot of resources at it. You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if it helps our GPU sales even in advance of [the port’s completion]. The reason is, [it’s] just gonna be a software download. Every single GPU that is CUDA-enabled will be able to run the physics engine when it comes. . . . Every one of our GeForce 8-series GPUs runs CUDA."
NVIDIA will take the PhysX engine and port it to CUDA, which is an application programmers can use to produce simple applications for graphics cards. CUDA is widely supported on NVIDIA’s current line of GeForce 8 cards.
In the world of the ever-advancing GPUs, it was only a matter of time till GPUs begin supporting other technology, such as physics in this case. Huang has high hopes for the physics integration, "Finally they’re able to get a physics engine accelerated into a very large population of gamers."
