Nvidia Acquires Ageia

Nvidia has signed a deal to acquire gaming physics pioneer Ageia Technologies, developer of the popular PhysX SDK.

Details of the acquisition will be released during Nvidia’s quarterly conference call on February 13, but in a press release, company president and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said, “The Ageia team is world class, and is passionate about the same thing we are – creating the most amazing and captivating game experiences. By combining the teams that created the world’s most pervasive GPU and physics engine brands, we can now bring GeForce-accelerated PhysX to hundreds of millions of gamers around the world.”

California-based Ageia was launched in 2002, and is responsible for both the PhsyX software for Windows and Linux as well as the dedicated physics processing unit of the same name. Games that support PhysX hardware acceleration include Medal of Honor: Airborne, Shadowgrounds Survivor, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and GRAW 2, and Unreal Tournament 3. The company also recently licensed the PhysX SDK to Sony for the PlayStation 3.

“Nvidia is a perfect fit for us,” said Ageia CEO Manju Hegde. “They have the world’s best parallel computing technology and are the thought leaders in GPUs and gaming. We are united by a common culture based on a passion for innovating and driving the consumer experience.”