Nvidia announced that its PhysX technology is now available to Wii developers. This follows a similar announcement Wednesday, when Nvidia said it has become a PhysX tools and middleware provider for Sony's PlayStation 3.
Nintendo Wii
(Credit: Nintendo)In Thursday's Nintendo-related announcement, Nvidia said it has been approved as a third-party tools solution provider for the Wii console. As a result, Nvidia's PhysX technology software development kit (SDK) is now available to registered Wii developers, the graphics chip supplier said.
Nvidia's PhysX technology, based on the laws of physics, enables game objects to respond dynamically to physical events in a game. Typically, Nvidia trumpets the performance of PhysX on its graphics chips. But this applies only to PCs, according to Nvidia spokesman Bryan Del Rizzo. In the case of game consoles, the PhysX processing is done by the CPU, not the GPU--even if a GPU is present. (CPU stands for central processing unit. GPU for graphics processing unit.)
"Based on all the processing cores in the GPU, we can do a lot more processing on the GPU than the CPU. That doesn't mean the CPU isn't a great place to do processing, but we can just take more advantage of an Nvidia GPU," Del Rizzo said.
The Nintendo Wii uses an PowerPC-based "Broadway" CPU and an AMD-ATI "Hollywood" GPU. The Sony PlayStation 3 uses an IBM Cell processor and an Nvidia GPU.
"Adding a PhysX SDK for Wii is key to our cross-platform strategy and integral to the business model for our licensed game developers and publishers," Tony Tamasi, senior vice president of content and technology at Nvidia, said in a statement. The Nvidia PhysX SDK consists of a full-featured application programming interface (API) and physics engine.
IBM is cutting pay for workers at chip manufacturing plants in New York and Vermont. This comes on the heels of job cuts at the Vermont facility.
IBM chip manufacturing facility
(Credit: IBM)Some shift workers at IBM's semiconductor plant in Essex Junction, Vt., will see net pay reductions of up to 10 percent in early 2009, said Jeff Couture, an IBM spokesperson.
In effect, a 20 percent premium for shift workers is being eliminated, according to Couture. To mitigate employee earnings losses, IBM is making a one-time base pay increase, he added. However, even with this increase, the "net for employees will range from no impact to a maximum of 10 percent (pay cut)," he said.
The report first appeared in the Burlington Free Press.
Overall, pay cuts would affect about 3,500 workers at plants in Poughkeepsie and East Fishkill, N.Y., as well as Essex Junction, Couture said.
Though revenue from IBM's Systems and Technology segment totaled $5.2 billion in the second quarter, up 2 percent year over year, revenue from "microelectronics OEM" (which is within the Systems and Technology group and includes chipmaking-related operations)--decreased 19 percent, according to the IBM 2008 second-quarter earnings report.
One aspect--not surprisingly--of the pay-cut move "is to reduce costs," Couture said. The other imperative is to remain competitive with rivals that don't pay the kind of premiums that IBM is paying.
IBM competes worldwide with companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Chartered Semiconductor.
The Essex Junction facility is a contract manufacturing operation that builds chips that go into cell phones, DVD players, TVs, and other consumer electronics devices, Couture said. East Fishkill, on the other hand, builds the specialized processors that go into Sony's PlayStation, Microsoft's Xbox, and the Nintendo Wii, among other products.
Earlier this year, IBM announced 180 job cuts at the Essex Junction plant, reducing the employee count to about 5,400.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, the largest contract chip manufacturer in the world, will crank up its MEMS foundry business. Micro-Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology is used in Apple's iPhone and the Nintendo Wii.
Nintendo Wii uses MEMS technology for motion detection
(Credit: Nintendo)MEMS typically have a microprocessor and other components such as microsensors. For example, MEMS technology is used in the iPhone and Wii to allow these devices to detect motion and changes in orientation.
In the iPhone, a device called an accelerometer detects when the user rotates the iPhone from portrait to landscape modes, then automatically adjusts the display, so the entire width of a web page or a photo can be seen in its proper aspect ratio.
Hewlett-Packard also uses MEMS technology for its inkjet print-head that combines integrated electronics with microfluidic channels to control ink droplets when printing.
TSMC will provide manufacturing services such as surface micromachining and manufacturing processes for CMOS-MEMS integration and packaging, according to Nikkei's Tech-On. (CMOS stands for complementary metal oxide semiconductor, a common class of integrated circuits used in microprocessors.)
MEMS technology, which in the past was limited mainly to in-house manufacturing or automotive products, is now being applied to a raft of consumer devices and mobile phones, the Tech-On report said.
The MEMS industry was estimated to be worth US$5.95 billion in 2007 and it is expected to exceed US$10.771 billion in 2011, the report said.
TSMC will detail the company's MEMS business plan at a technical seminar in Tokyo on May 15, the report said.
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