NVidia closes the deal with Ageia

GPU manufacturer NVidia has successfully acquired physics processor maker Ageia Technologies, in a deal announced last week. The new parent told BetaNews today it could add PhysX technology into future GeForce GPU products as soon as possible.

"We're really excited about the future of physics and Ageia," NVidia Public Relations spokesperson Derek Perez told BetaNews. "We hope adding more physics technology into GeForce will impact the way virtual worlds look and behave, thus helping to drive the end user experience."

"It doesn't change anything with the OEMs at all," Perez added when asked what impact the buyout will have with Ageia's OEM contacts. BFG Technologies is one OEM that produces both NVidia-based graphics cards and Ageia-based physics cards, though it once again declined to comment on the deal.

Nvidia's purchase will position it in direct competition with Havok, the physics processor maker Intel purchased in September. AMD briefly considered purchasing Ageia last November, though observers believe that after suffering the backlash from its purchase of ATI, AMD was knocked out of the running.

NVidia and Ageia will appear jointly in San Francisco next week at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), where the first details on new, potentially jointly-branded products are expected to be revealed.