AGEIA PhysX SDK for PLAYSTATION®3

[thunderhawk]

AGEIA PhysX SDK for PLAYSTATION®3

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – March 21, 2006 - AGEIA™ Technologies, Inc., the pioneer in hardware-accelerated physics for games, today announced that the latest version of AGEIA PhysX™ SDK version 2.4 will become available to registered PLAYSTATION® 3 game content developers on March 31, 2006.

The AGEIA PhysX SDK is highly recognized for its extensive physics functionality and multithreading capabilities, which are uniquely suited for the multicore architecture of the Cell processor adopted on PLAYSTATION® 3. The latest AGEIA PhysX SDK version 2.4 is optimized for the Cell processor, adding mind-blowing physics action to the high-definition graphics of PLAYSTATION® 3 titles.

In the 2.4 release, several components of the AGEIA PhysX pipeline have been offloaded from the PPU of the PLAYSTATION® 3 to the SPUs; developers can fully control the component deployment. This has resulted in a 50% reduction in maximum PPU load, leaving more room for game code and smooth frame rates.

"Real-time physical simulation is the new frontier in computer entertainment, and the PLAYSTATION®3 will lead the way with the help of AGEIA PhysX technology,” said Dominic Mallinson, Vice President of US R&D for Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. "Our collaboration with AGEIA will provide PLAYSTATION®3 developers with another powerful tool enabling the creation of amazingly rich and realistic interactive entertainment."

“The debut of the PLAYSTATION® 3 is one of the most anticipated launches in the history of games, and we’re extremely pleased that AGEIA PhysX technology will be a part of it,” said Manju Hegde, founder and CEO of AGEIA. “With AGEIA PhysX technology available for PLAYSTATION® 3, PLAYSTATION® 3 content creators will have the tools they need to create a new era in action-packed, physics-enabled games.”

Source: http://techgage.com/review.php?id=4533

[Stef Nighthawk]

Is the Aegia PhysX a seperate processing unit on the PS3 or is it using one of the several PPE's?

On the PC it's a seperate processing unit, don't know about the PS3. But if it is using one of the PPE's than there will be 6 left to do other calculations.

[thunderhawk]

Erm, I think it'll be a seperate processing unit as it's a hardware component. But it does work closely with the Cell processor.
In stead of putting everything on the CPU, some of the calculations will be done by the so called PPU (Physics Processing Unit). So in fact, the PS3 will become faster when the PPU is sufficiently used.

[cws2882]

Originally Posted by Stef Nighthawk

Is the Aegia PhysX a seperate processing unit on the PS3 or is it using one of the several PPE's?

On the PC it's a seperate processing unit, don't know about the PS3. But if it is using one of the PPE's than there will be 6 left to do other calculations.

it says they are releasing the software development kit, so it appears to me that they would be using one or more of the processors already on the ps3. Im pretty sure that the application developers get to decide what each processor is used for.

[thunderhawk]

Nope, the software devolopment kit is for the PPU inside the PS3.

The premise is easy for anyone to grasp really. The dedicated PPU (Physics Processing Unit) has been designed to take the physics processing load off of the all ready strapped CPU and allow the CPU to handle AI and let the graphics card get it’s render on.

The article I took, is only a part of the full story..

[cws2882]

[QUOTE=thunderhawk]Nope, the software devolopment kit is for the PPU inside the PS3.QUOTE]

I dont know, i only glanced at the article, but this was in bold...

"AGEIA PhysX SDK for PLAYSTATION®3, Optimized for Cell Processor, to be Available on March 31st
Multithreaded AGEIA PhysX SDK Version 2.4 Offers
Fully Parallelized Performance on PLAYSTATION® 3"

If it is optimized for the cell processor, then i wouldnt think they would have all thoes cell processors plus a seperate PPU