nVidia buy Ageia

OK this may look a bit strange in hardware, but the video chipset giant nVidia have just bought Ageia who are the owners of the "PhysX" technology that gives increased object movement reality in video games.

Games consoles already have PhysX for the most part, but Ageia have difficulty in convincing PC manufacturers that their boxes should have three processor types, rather than the standard two. That would be the CPU, a GPU and the PPU that runs PhysX.

This leads me to ask some interesting questions for the future of gaming PCs. Let's assume that nVidia get the revenue that Ageia are already getting from the gaming console market; that leaves nVidia to bundle the technology with their high end gaming chipsets, which would be a big advantage over their rivals?

Also, they could "close" the technology to their competitors, or at least ensure that they were always one development ahead.

Over here I do not see any monopoly (anti-trust) legislation that would prohibit that. If there was then you might as well scrap all patent and copyright legislation;)

I do wonder what the effects of this will be on the gaming community, the video card sector, computer manufacturers and the stock market?

My sentiment: strong buy, but I am afraid we are probably too late?

:)

If Microsoft gets involved (buys nVidia) we could see another mid 90's slap on the wrist for Bill... Thats the only way I could see this monopolizing.

I can't wait to see (literally) where this goes!