AMD teams up with Havok for physicsAnalysis Intel and AMD backhand NvidiaBy Charlie Demerjian: Thursday, 12 June 2008, 10:09 AMAMD AND INTEL are teaming up to backhand Nvidia in the physics arena. They are presenting a unified front to shut out NV for the first time.If you remember, NV bought Ageia a while ago, and Intel owns Havok. Until today, this left ATI out in the cold; they could do their own and end up with a situation where each GPU has it's own physics, or simply sit out the fray. They wisely chose to partner with Havok/Intel, and in doing so, marginalise Nvidia.If the two sides play nice, and I have no doubt they will in the short and medium term, then that leaves the Nvidia/Ageia PhysX API as the red-headed stepchild of the industry. You have the Intel support mechanisms vs the Nvidia ones, Intel financial clout vs Nvidia. Take a guess which one will win that? Since ATI GPUs are in the two leading consoles, owning about 75+% of the installed base for which game devs target, that is a really strong incentive for developers to go Havok.In the end, this is a political move, likely the first in a string, to cut off Nvidia's air supply. It forces developers to take sides, Intel or Nvidia, and more importantly, console vs PC. The Intel/NV battle could go either way, likely decided by checkbooks more than anything, but the console/PC decision is done and dusted. NV loses badly here and there is nothing that they can do until the next console generation in 2011 or so.The end result is a seemingly small announcement with huge implications. It is nothing less than a boot to the teeth for Nvidia, and no one is going to cry for them. Watch closely, this will happen again and again, and the foundation will get chipped away from NV's support base each time.
