Ageia

{{short description|Fabless semiconductor company}}

{{more citations needed|date=April 2013}}

{{Infobox company

| name = Ageia Technologies, Inc.

| logo = Ageia logo.png

| type =

| fate = Acquired by and merged into Nvidia Corporation

| foundation = 2002

| defunct = February 13, 2008

| location = Santa Clara, California, United States

| key_people = Manju Hegde, CEO

Curtis Matthew Davis, COO, President, & Co-founder

| industry = Semiconductors

| products = Physics Processing Units
Physics engines

| revenue =

| operating_income =

| net_income =

| num_employees =

| homepage = {{URL|http://www.ageia.com}}

}}

{{update|date=February 2025}}

Ageia, founded in 2002, was a fabless semiconductor company. In 2004, Ageia acquired NovodeX, the company who created PhysX – a Physics Processing Unit chip capable of performing game physics calculations much faster than general purpose CPUs; they also licensed out the PhysX SDK (formerly NovodeX SDK), a large physics middleware library for game production.{{cite web|access-date=2024-04-11 |date=2006-11-22 |title=Ageia To Give Away PhysX SDK On PC |publisher=gamedeveloper.com |url=https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/ageia-to-give-away-physx-sdk-on-pc}}

Ageia was noted as being the first company to develop hardware designed to offload calculation of video game physics from the CPU to a separate chip, commercializing it in the form of the Ageia PhysX, a discrete PCI card.{{cite web|access-date=2024-04-11 |date=2006-03-22 |title=AGEIA Brings First Dedicated Physics Processor To Market; Launches New Age in Interactive Gaming |publisher=gamesindustry.biz |url=https://www.gamesindustry.biz/ageia-brings-first-dedicated-physics-processor-to-market-launches-new-age-in-interactive-gaming}}{{Cite web |last=By |date=2024-05-06 |title=Retrogadgets: The Ageia PhysX Card |url=https://hackaday.com/2024/05/06/retrogadgets-the-ageia-physx-card/ |access-date=2025-05-01 |website=Hackaday |language=en-US}} Soon after the Ageia implementation of their PhysX processor, ATI and Nvidia announced their own physics implementations.{{cite web|access-date=2024-04-11 |date=2007-02-22 |title=PhysX PPU soon to be in open war with AMD/ATI and NVIDIA |publisher=arstechnica.com |url=https://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2007/02/8906/}}

On September 1, 2005, AGEIA acquired Meqon, a physics development company based in Sweden. Known for its forward-looking features and multi-platform support, Meqon earned international acclaim for its physics technology incorporated in 3D Realms’ Duke Nukem Forever and Saber Interactive's TimeShift.{{cite web|url=http://www.meqon.com/index.php|title=AGEIA Acquires Meqon Research AB|place=MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif|date=September 1, 2005|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051027024157/http://www.meqon.com/index.php|archive-date=2005-10-27}}

On February 4, 2008, Nvidia announced that it would acquire Ageia.{{cite web|last=Smalley|first=Tim|title=Nvidia set to acquire Ageia|website=bit-tech.net|date=4 February 2008|url=http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/02/04/nvidia_set_to_acquire_ageia/1|access-date=5 February 2008}} On February 13, 2008, the merger was finalized.{{cite web|access-date=2024-04-11 |date=2008-02-13 |title=NVIDIA completes Acquisition of AGEIA Technologies |publisher=nvidia.com |url=http://www.nvidia.com/object/io_1202895129984.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080214115755/http://www.nvidia.com/object/io_1202895129984.html |archive-date=2008-02-14 |url-status=dead |type=press-release}}{{cite web|url=http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2008/02/14/nvidia_finalises_ageia_deal_details_future_plans/1|title=Nvidia finalises Ageia deal, details future plans|first=Tim|last=Smalley|date=14 February 2008|publisher=bittech}}

The PhysX engine is now known as Nvidia PhysX, and has been adapted to be run on Nvidia's GPUs.{{cite web|access-date=2024-04-11 |date= |title=GameWorks PhysX Overview |publisher=nvidia.com |url=https://developer.nvidia.com/gameworks-physx-overview |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140318180812/https://developer.nvidia.com/gameworks-physx-overview |archive-date=2014-03-18 |url-status=dead}}