Talk:Physics processing unit: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 23:38, 11 August 2005

Revision as of 23:39, 11 August 2005

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: I have tried to find out but cannot find details on the internals of the PPU. The advantage [[PhysX]] has over the Cell processor, is a SDK ready for use, complete with a tutorial. It is possible a patent search can unearth something more substantial than the glossy whitepapers that are available.

: [http://ps3.ign.com/articles/635/635492p1.html This article] states that Sony made an agreement with [[Ageia]] to port its SDK to the Cell processor.

:: An SDK I can certainly understand; physics simulation is software, you can provide a middleware package to encapsulate that software for developers. You write an API for a software package that runs on a processor. But I can't imagine what special instruction set a ''chip'' might have for physics, other than the usual linear algebra. I can find only three [[http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220050165874%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20050165874&RS=DN/20050165874 | patent applications]] by AGEIA and they seem to be mostly concerned with their algorithm for solving the [[Linear Complementarity Problem]]. The chip itself is only sketchily referred to, and appears to be a vector processor essentially like the [[Cell (microprocessor)|Cell]]: a group of parallel math units each with its own memory island. [[User:Collabi|Collabi]] 23:22, 11 August 2005 (UTC)