CUDA/PhysX developer moves to AMD

Manju Hegde+CUDA - Google Search

Just doing a google search shows this news or rumor is spreading very fast.

Manju Hegde is the inventor of PhysX, CEO of Aegia and then later become VP of PhysX for Nvidia. Manju Hegde while known for PhysX, what caught people's attention are his expertise with GPGPU computing, which is why he was integral to Nvidia's CUDA development.
- No doubt he was at the center of converting the Aegia engine to CUDA.

We already have read a lot press lately from ATi wanting to push for OpenCL, their Stream API for Stream Processors and also for their Open Physics movement with Bullet Physics which looks to me an OpenCL/DirectCompute or GPGPU accelerated Physics.

Will be interesting to see what changes or increased development Manju Hegde can bring to AMD. I wonder what position he will have.

My personal thinking. For ATi it has not been about a lack of innovation or technology. ATi has had a historically difficult time getting developers to adopt and use their technology. There is one article noting that ATi had HDR and AA enabled a full year before Nvidia managed to implement that, but during that time was unable to get the major blockbuster, AAA games to adopt it. ATi has plenty of programmes out there for developers just as Nvidia has, but Nvidia undoubtedly has been more successful in marketing CUDA. I'm thinking maybe AMD wants Manju to do what he did for Nvidia, market their GPGPU computing potential and get these new technologies adopted just as quickly and widely as Nvidia has succeeded.

What do you think?

From Nvidia's website

 

ATI should pay you marketing fees or something.

 

Cool. What would REALLY be awesome is some sort of legal switcheroo act where this original creator guy gives ATI PhysX capability legally. I don't understand why Nvidia doesn't just charge ATI some minimal licensing fee for the capability. As it stands, their standard will just die and disappear while the standard Havok is using will supercede it. So they are trying to keep it as a checkbox for their cards that isn't available with ATI, but in the end they will just lock themselves out of developers hands and push them toward of Physics engines. This will happen even if PhysX is superior!

*facepalm*

 

All I read is speculation speculation speculation. This will die and this will dissappear blah blah blah. Stop spreading FUD.

 

Nvidia CUDA ace to move on to AMD - Hegde your bets now | TechEye

I don't think a VP moving from one company to another constitutes Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.

 

More companies need to adopt Bullet. It works in OpenCL, is CUDA compatible and works on virtually any OS and game console platform out there at the moment. It's been used in the movies Hancock, 2012, and Bolt, as well as a few games like GTA4. In conjunction with Euphoria, GTA4 made awesome use of it.