Xbit labs have some news on the physics processing add-on cards we have previously reported on. We now know they are expected Q4 this year, manufactured by AsusTeK and expected to cost $249 to $299 in the US. Quite how that price will translate over here is hard to say but it's clear the games that support this card are seriously going to need to deliver to make this card sell until the price comes down.

AGEIA's PhysX is the world's first Physics Processing Unit (PPU), which offloads software physics processing from central processing units and graphics processing units to it. The architecture of the PhysX PPU is tailored for multi-threaded processing of vertexes, which allows game creators to develop detailed, soft and precise animation and simulation of movements, hair, clothing, liquids, fluids and other. Currently AGEIA PhysX is the world's first and only dedicated physics processing unit, but the company expects more startups to offer similar technology.

The PhysX chip will be manufactured with 0.13 micron technology at TSMC, and the 182sq.mm die will host 125 million transistors, which is larger than that of mainstream graphics processing units, such as ATI RADEON X700.

Source: xbitlabs.com