AEGIA Delayed till Q2 of 2006??

[Kunaak]

this thing was suppose to be out next month last I heard, now a single solitary line, at Anandtech, talking about the ATI R580 (Please dont start on that, its far too far away to speculate on) and this one little line was kinda sad to read... I been looking forward to checking this thing out for awhile now, but it always seems to be getting delayed.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2574

However, the indication we had was that ATI could actually do physics calculations on the card with the graphics processing simultaniously -- the bandwidth is already there. AEGIA's physics processor has already been delayed well into Q2 next year.

[J-Mag]

i saw that too, so i emailed the PR rep for Aegia asking if the PPU was delayed.

She replied with a short and sweet email

"No, where did you hear this?"

I sent her the anand link... I don't know if she is trying to fix a leak(which is most likely because i got minimum detail and she is a PR rep afterall) or if she is speaking the truth, so whatever it is worth...

If it has been delayed then: BOOOOO! I say.

Also, it comes to mind, why have we seen an engineering sample and two different pre-production boards if it has been delayed?

What could be the possible reasons for delyay?
1. Bad ICs (unlikely at 130nm process)
2. Not enough Dev Support for Launch (marketing controls producst so i suspect this)
3. SDK is screwed up somehow
4. Not enough OEM support (unlikely, as this is a niche product at first)
5. Component Scarcity (anyone know which DDR IC is supposed to be used?)

[Afterburner]

Or they got frightened by ATI's claim of being able to do simultaneous 3D + Physics calculations......

[en4cer]

Well....this sucks if it's true, I was hoping to get one for x-mas

[DilTech]

Or they got frightened by ATI's claim of being able to do simultaneous 3D + Physics calculations......

At the cost of serious FPS!...Considering with all newer games we're royally gpu limited, and not cpu limited, we'd be better off just using a second core(dual core) to handle physics, which could technically handle MORE than ati's current card due to the card already being the bottleneck in the game, while the second core wouldn't be doing a thing. While the idea of using a gpu to handle physics sounds great on paper, in reality it wouldn't do much good, as you'd be wasting VERY precious gpu time on something else, while the cpu sits there waiting for the gpu to catch up. Before someone says "well, 2 cards in crossfire", I'll reply "well, $500-$600 compared to $200, I'll go with ageia". In no current(as in released in the last 6 months) or upcoming engine are we cpu limited at any decent resolution!

Besides, there's no physics engine which supports offloading physics to the gpu, making it a worthless claim, like most of what ati's PR says, or ANY pr for ANY company for that matter.

If it was delayed due to anything, it's due to a lack of games being ready in-time for the release of the PPU, not over ATi's claim.

[Afterburner]

Yes Sir......kinda figured Sir

[del_fuego]

If it was delayed due to anything, it's due to a lack of games being ready in-time for the release of the PPU, not over ATi's claim.

I agree. Its a bit useless to release this thing without content. Is it just a coincidence that Ghost Recon 3 (which is to support the SDK) seems to be delayed also till Feb 2006. Maybe its a good thing, i wouldnt want to buy one if all i can do is just stare at it in my case.

Cheers, dEl.