Talk:Physics processing unit

message: Really? Is the part about the VU0 necessary? The VU0 was just a primitive form of SIMD instruction set, the low end MIPS CPU at the core of the Emotion engine wasn't even really designed with it in mind, Sony basically hacked something together by shoving two of the MIPS processors 64-bit FPU's together and creating some new instructions for processing packed SIMD instructions. If we're going to mention that though, why would we leave out the Xbox - as the Pentium 3 it came with had SSE3, which was purpose built and actually had superior SIMD capabilities to Sony's Frankenstein solution. I know that the concept of SIMD in processors may *sound* similar to what the PhysX processor is doing. But that's because the PhysX processor was pretty close to the concept of a modern GPU, which consists of like thousands of tiny cores that perform the same operation many many times. Usually floating point (GPU's have since added integer capabilities, but at the time they were all floating point).
The two concepts, that of a GPU/Physics processor and an SIMD instruction set, sound similar because they are both basically the same concept, SIMD. The GPU just takes the concept to the extreme, whereas even on modern AVX you can at best hope to operate on 8 different packed values at once, with the GPU your operating on thousands. The GPU cores are also usually a lot weaker individually. And AVX sits right next to the processor so of course it's ideal for mixing with general programming. Whereas it can be difficult for the GPU and CPU to communicate effectively over their lengthy bus.2601:140:8980:106F:8576:80E0:C309:7606 (talk) 08:34, 5 May 2019 (UTC)
thread_title: VU0

message: There's a lot of confusion between NovodeX (a physics programming API, much like Direct3D is to graphics) and the actual hardware board that Ageia is developing. Despite the common origin of the hardware/API, I don't think it's really relevant that the PS3/Xbox is going to support the software NovodeX simulation pipe. As such, I don't think those facts belong in the article. The same goes for statements like: The NovodeX API can also be used to program physics for general purpose hardware, but it is specialized to run optimally on the PhysX hardware.
Thoughts, anyone? --Kyle Davis 08:11, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text:  I've been bold and removed the software information; it was all old information or duplicated from the PhysX article page --PdDemeter 13:18, 23 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  NovodeX/PhysX 

message: "The Nintendo Revolution is rumored to use a PPU. [3]"
Is there actually going to be a physical piece of hardware for "physics" or is it just software for it?  Because it's linked to howstuffworks.com, and while it is informative, it isn't very up to date, and it DOES say "rumored"
:Someone put that in there and it caused a ton of vandalism so I removed it, since it is just a rumor anyways. But someone later put it back in, so I added a "source" for the rumor. If you want to modify or remove it go ahead. Qutezuce 19:59, 12 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: The link is now broken, so I'll just remove it. Chris M. 17:29, 2 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: PPU in Rev

message: I took out the two sections that were entirely PhysX-related from it after copying some info into that article. While it's certainly appropriate to talk about the first major commercial PPU for a bit, the way the article was structured, it made it sound like the two were synonymous. Does anyone have any info about other PPUs or PPUs in general that can be used to buff up the article a bit? (I don't.) --Ted 19:08, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Right now, it's the ONLY one on the market. ATI is teaming up with Havok, and their solution will be part of their crossfire system. More info is here. Corky842 22:56, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  Well, yes. That doesn't mean this should turn into a copy of the PhysX article, does it? --Ted 03:14, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

text: Alas I fear this article will never expand beyond a link to the PhysX: Havok FX is still software, albeit partially running on a GPU instead of a CPU. Is the article in need of renaming/removal? (perhaps when we have 2 PPUs in the world we can recreate it!)  --PdDemeter 04:03, 23 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  This is about PPUs, not PhysX 

message: Intel To Acquire Havok
This is notable - Intel may suppress Havok FX, to favour sales of multi-processor-core PCs or defer it until its own GPU Larrabee is released ! --195.137.93.171 (talk) 11:12, 7 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Intel aquired Havok !