Hardware manufacturer Nvidia, which just purchased physics technology developer AGEIA, is porting AGEIA's PhysX engine software to run on its GeForce 8 cards, according to The Tech Report.

During a financial call, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hseun Huang revealed that the ported engine will bring enhanced physics capabilities to all of the company's existing GeForce 8 cards, as it will be programmed in CUDA.

"Finally [developers are] able to get a physics engine accelerated into a very large population of gamers," explained Huang. "[It's] just gonna be a software download. Every single GPU that is CUDA-enabled will be able to run the physics engine when it comes...Every one of our GeForce 8-series GPUs runs CUDA."

At the time of the AGEIA purchase, Nvidia noted its intent to integrate PhysX support into its products, but did not specify any details. In light of today's revelation, Huang expects to see increased sales of the Nvidia cards, especially to those equipped with SLI slots.

"It might, and probably will, encourage people to buy a second GPU for their SLI slot," he said. "And for the highest-end gamer, it will encourage them to buy three GPUs. Potentially two for graphics and one for physics, or one for graphics and two for physics."

Giving Microsoft little time to revel in the announcement of its forthcoming '80s Camaro-like SideWinder Mouse, Razer has revealed yet another mouse named after a type of pit viper. The Razer Lachesis (pronounced "LACK-uh-sis")--Lachesis being the genus of vipers containing the largest pit viper in the world--doubles the sensitivity of Microsoft's mouse with a 4,000-DPI laser.

This enhanced sensitivity is coupled with on-the-fly DPI switching, nine programmable buttons, and looks that won't make you ashamed to own it. And rather than biting the hands of lefties, the Lachesis, like other Razer mice, can be gripped by both north and southpaws. Though the Lachesis lacks the LCD screen of the SideWinder, an enhancement sure to become a standard feature of gaming mice come October.

More information on the Lachesis can be found on Razer's Web site for the mouse. Like Microsoft's SideWinder, the Lachesis will be available in October for $79.99, pennies more than Microsoft's mouse.

Lying dormant for four years, Microsoft's SideWinder line of gaming accessories has returned with the SideWinder Mouse, Microsoft announced today at Leipzig. The highly customizable peripheral features customizable weights, on-the-fly sensitivity switching, and interestingly, an LCD screen. Beautiful sleek looks was not listed as a feature. We're not sure why because it's a looker!

"We found that gamers are a lot like performance car enthusiasts," said Microsoft Hardware manager Bill Jukes. "They like to tweak and tune their mouse to get it just right, and today we are giving them the tools to create a personalized experience that lets them focus on what’s important: being at the top of their game.”

The LCD screen purports to gives gamers a one-look view at the... Read more

Earlier this week, Dell announced the newest entry in the XPS family, the XPS 720 H2C. When given the opportunity to learn more about the machine itself, I thought our readers might also be interested in the history of Dell's XPS brand. Glen Robson and Abizar Vakhari, respectively General Manager and Marketing Manager of Dell's Gaming Line of Business, spoke with me about the XPS brand, while Ketan Pandya, Dell's Product Marketing Manager, spoke with me about the new 720 model itself. ... Read more

ATI has released new Catalyst drivers (XP and Vista) for videocards powered by Radeon chipsets, with the release notes mentioning Windows Vista fixes for Battlefield 2, Quake 4 and Unreal Tournament 2004. There are also new ForceWare drivers for GeForce 8X00 powered cards on the NVidia website.

Last year, former computing giant Commodore announced that it would return to the world of games. The Commodore name was acquired and adopted in 2005 by Yeahronimo Media Ventures, Inc., which now goes by Commodore International and has established a Commodore Gaming division. At the time of the announcement, the company stated that it would make use of various game licenses established on the massively successful Commodore 64, before eventually moving into new game development. Earlier this month, however, the company announced rather different plans: it will launch a line of high-end gaming PCs, similar to those manufactured by companies such as Alienware and Falcon Northwest.

Now, the company has revealed initial images of the Commodore-branded PC line, set to be fully unveiled at the CeBIT trade show being held this week in Hannover. Some of the cases feature images themed around PC titles such as Gas Powered Games' Supreme Commander and Ubisoft Montreal's Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2. Primo Technology has the scoop on the system specs of the first wave, as well as some comments from Commodore Gaming CEO Bala Keilman.

- Intel CoreT2 Extreme quad-core processor
- Asus P5N32-E nForce 680i SLI motherboard
- Two 150 GB 10,000 RPM SATA drives in RAID 0, with spare 500GB 7,200 RPM SATA drive
- 4GB (2 x 2048) Corsair Dominator memory at 1066 MHz
- Two nVidia 8800 GTX video cards
- Creative Labs X-Fi sound card
- Windows Vista Ultimate

"The all new Commodore range of PC's will allow gamers of all levels to enjoy the best that PC gaming has to offer," said Keilman. "We wanted to bring something new to the market, in the spirit of our Commodore heritage, and have worked hard to design a fully personalised product." Apparently, the Commodore PCs can be designed visually according to individual customer specifications.

Commodore has not yet revealed pricing or release plans for the line. Further announcements are expected this week.

NVidia has opened a Vista Quality Assurance page on their website, noting that "NVIDIA is committed to supporting Microsoft Windows Vista on current and previous GPU generations". There are also plans for monthly driver releases. Thanks Tech Report.

Some early Windows Vista gaming benchmarks show that as expected drivers arent really very mature yet for the OS. Roughly 5-15% slower than XP for now. If that isnt enough here are a few more.

Making the rounds this week has been what appears to be confirmation of Intel entering the high-end GPU market dominated by NVIDIA and AMD-owned ATI. The news, which follows recent speculation, comes courtesy of Intel's own official jobs page, which outlines in fairly clear terms the company's new Visual Computing Group, which it claims is "aggressively positioned to advance the state of the art in graphics and other high-throughput workloads." The full blurb is as follows:

Intel's Visual Computing Group (VCG) has the mission to establish the future of computing for high-throughput applications. We are initially focused on developing advanced products based on a many-core architecture targeting high-end client platforms. We're aggressively positioned to advance the state of the art in graphics and other high-throughput workloads. Our vision is that the resulting ingredients and technology will extend to other platforms including mobile clients, servers, and embedded applications over time.

Intel currently dominates the integrated graphics market--and by extension has a dominant stake in the overall PC graphics market--but the VCG plan seems to be set on targeting high end products with "many-core architecture" before later expanding to other less intensive platforms and embedded products. This marks Intel's first full-fledged entry into the discrete GPU market since its attempts after acquiring graphics company Real3D. There is no publicly revealed time frame for the project at this point. (Thanks Beyond3D for the find.)

So the big announcement in nerd land today is the iPhone and Apple TV. Apple unveiled all kinds of information about the iPhone which is also the widescreen/touchscreen iPod people have been talking about for so long. Here are a few bits.

iPhone (website)
- Cingular exclusive, launching June
- $499/$599 price points for 4G/8G models
- Runs OSX, No Stylus
- More pics info
AppleTV (website)
- WiFi b+g+n / HDMI / 720p / etc.
- Ordering now, launching February
- Syncs with up to 5 machines
- Works with iTunes of course

Where is our standalone widescreen touchie iPod you commies.

Tech Report reports that both Seagate and Hitachi are getting ready to release hard drives with a one terabyte capacity (that's a lot of porn). Both drives use perpendicular recording technology, allowing for 4 x 250GB platters in the case of Seagate and 5 x 200GB platters for Hitachi. The Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 should retail for around $399, no price was given for the Seagate drive.

Overclockers Club and GameZone both have posted Q&As with Robert Krakoff, asking the president of PC peripheral manufacturer Razer about his company and its products.

Tech Report is reporting that AGEIA PhysX prices are starting to come down. The physics acceleration board launched at $299 earlier this year, but now some online stores are carrying cards for under 200. Additionals, several e-tailers including Newegg and ZipZoomFly will include City of Villains, Bet on Soldier: Blood of Sahara, and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter with PhysX cards.

The Executives Speak is an interview on HardOCP, asking senior executives of seven computer manufacturers about the PC industry and their place in it. There are responses from people like Michael Dell of ..well, you know, Dell, Kelt Reeves of Falcon Northwest, Mario Cifaldi of Overdrive PC and Randy Copeland of Velocity Micro.

Also announced by Microsoft today is the return of the IntelliMouse. According to Microsoft, IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0 is being reintroduced "in response to the demand from PC gamers worldwide". It will be available this September (going by the image on the Microsoft website) or October (going by the official press release) for $39.95.

Good news for fans of PC games as well as the Xbox 360 wireless controller, as Microsoft today announced that they will release a Xbox 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows late December. With this USB 2.0 plug, which will carry an MSRP of $19.99, you can use Xbox 360 wireless accessories such as the Xbox 360 wireless controller or wireless headset (more on that in tonight's LNC).

The Razer website has been updated, offering this press release announcing that Razer is powering a new Microsoft mouse called the Habu. The Habu mouse will feature a 2000 DPI laser, interchangeable side button panels and the ability to store five game profiles on the mouse itself. The Microsoft Habu will be out this October, with an MSRP of $69.95.

Gaming Nexus is the site with the latest AGEIA Q&A. Vice president of marketing Michael Steele talks about the PhysX launch, lackluster reaction so far, ATI and NVidia's GPU physics acceleration plans and the time it will take before the physics market reaches critical mass.

Bigfoot Networks has announced its first consumer network accelerator card, dubbed the Killer NIC. It's a PCI network card equipped with a 400MHz processing unit, 64MB of RAM, and a USB port. It is set to go on sale August 16; no suggested retail price was divulged.

GDHardware is the latest site with a Q&A with Manju Hegde and Michael Steele of AGEIA, asking them about the PhysX physics acceleration chip that was released not too long ago. Topics include pricing, the need for a product like this and developer support.