ASUS today confirmed that it will be one of the driving forces in creating the physics accelerator market with the AGEIA PhysX processor.

The company will begin distributing this new AGEIA PhysX Accelerator cards in May, 2006. ASUS will be one of the only two companies to manufactur e the card, and will be the sole company making the card in a 256MB configuration.

Partnered since May, 2005, ASUS and AGEIA Technologies, Inc. have been working together to bring the physics accelerator card, to market for avid PC gamers. The new ASUS card promises a completely new gaming experience with dramatic, real-time physical motion and interaction that will change gaming.

The Ageia concept actually adds another processor, called AGEIA PhysX processor unit (PPU), to the usual CPU and GPU processor configuration of a game system. All CPU, GPU and PPU processors are working together to balance the extensive computing demands of game logic, graphics and physics. Within this balanced triangle the CPU ?thinks and orchestrates? to drive game artificial intelligence and logic, the general purpose GPU ?renders and displays? to deliver 3D imagery, and the third leg of the triangle, the new AGEIA PhysX Processor, ?moves and interacts? to offer dynamic motion and interaction.

The AGEIA PhysX processor will be integrated into an add-in card known as a PhysX Accelerator which is manufactured and sold by today?s card vendors. AGEIA makes the PhysX processor, while board vendors like Asus make the PhysX Accelerator cards.

Note that game developers should integrate the AGEIA technology into their titles, in order to take advantage of its offerings.

Curently, over 60 developers are planning and creating more than 100 games that take advantage of the new physics processor.