NVIDIA and Havok Demonstrate World's First GPU-Powered Game Physics Solution at Game Developer's Conference

21 March 2006

NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies, and Havok, the game industry's leading supplier of cross- platform middleware, will be demonstrating a physics effects solution that runs completely on a graphics processing unit (GPU) -- an industry first -- at this year's Game Developer Conference (GDC) in San Jose, California (March 21st through 24th).

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020613/NVDALOGO )

The result of an ongoing engineering collaboration between Havok and NVIDIA, this new software product from Havok -- called Havok FX(TM) -- enables the simulation of dramatically-detailed physical phenomena in PC games, when powered by GPUs such as NVIDIA GeForce(R)7 or 6 Series GPUs and further amplified with NVIDIA SLI multi-GPU technology. The Havok FX product is currently in early release to select developers and is expected to be available this summer.

Through Havok FX, GPUs can simulate the interactions of thousands of colliding rigid bodies, a fundamental technique of physics computation seen in today's latest games. It's now possible to compute the components of friction, collisions, gravity, mass, and velocity that form the basis of rigid body physics. Havok FX is designed for GPUs supporting Shader Model 3.0, including the NVIDIA GeForce 6 and 7 Series GPUs.

Utilizing Havok FX and NVIDIA graphics technology, game developers can now implement sophisticated physical phenomenon such as debris, smoke, and fluids that add immense detail and believability to game environments. Game designers can include advanced physics effects without burdening the CPU and slowing game-play, since the effects are simulated and rendered on the GPU.

Tyler Thompson, Technical Director of video game developer Flagship Studios states, "With Havok FX, we can explore new types of visual effects that add realism into Hellgate: London. Given the widespread installed base of GPUs and the incredible performance of the new NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX and GT GPUs, Havok FX was a natural choice."

"We are very excited about the quality and speed we are seeing on the NVIDIA GPUs. We've believed for some time that GPU technology had the potential to simulate physical effects and our collaboration with NVIDIA has proven that," says Jeff Yates, VP of Product Management at Havok. "The large installed base of Shader Model 3 class GPUs and momentum by NVIDIA in the market make Havok FX an attractive solution for game developers looking for hardware-accelerated physics."

"Moving physics processing to the GPU is a natural progression enabled by the high programmability in today's GPUs," said David Kirk, chief scientist at NVIDIA. "By combining expertise with Havok, we have produced a fantastic solution for game developers that will lead to more compelling game-play and more realistic gaming experiences."

The award-winning NVIDIA GeForce 7 and GeForce 6 graphics architectures deliver advanced technologies including full support for Microsoft(R) DirectX(R) 9.0 Shader Model 3.0, enabling advanced shading programs for more realistic effects. By using the advanced programmable resources available in current GPUs, developers can harness the massive parallel computation capability of NVIDIA GPUs. The performance available to developers is further enhanced through NVIDIA SLI technology. This revolutionary platform innovation allows users to intelligently scale graphics performance by combining multiple NVIDIA graphics solutions in a single system with an NVIDIA nForce(R) SLI MCP.

About Havok

Havok is the gaming industry's leading independent provider of physics and character animation middleware. Top game developers and publishers worldwide such as Sony, EA, Microsoft Game Studios, Ubisoft, and Activision have licensed Havok products for use on over 150 titles including Halo 2, Perfect Dark Zero, Age of Empires III, Marvel Nemesis, and Mercenaries. Havok enables game developers to create virtual worlds where players enter a dynamic, living and breathing universe with characters that interact in a completely natural and unscripted way. Havok's game specific solutions help developers achieve creative goals while reducing overall cost, time and risk associated with building today's leading games. Havok has offices in Dublin, Ireland and San Francisco.

About NVIDIA

NVIDIA Corporation is the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies. The Company creates innovative, industry-changing products for computing, consumer electronics, and mobile devices. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA and has offices throughout Asia, Europe, and the Americas. For more information, visit http://www.nvidia.com.

Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, the benefits, performance, capabilities and features of NVIDIA GeForce 7 and GeForce 6 series GPUs and SLI technology, the collaboration between NVIDIA and Havok, availability of Havok FX, PC gamers' continued demand for realism, game developer's uses of the Havok FX and NVIDIA graphics technology, and the combination of NVIDIA and Havok technology, are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, changes in PC gamers' preferences for quality and speed, lack of new PC games to use the new technology, delays in ramping new products into production, prohibitive pricing of new products and games, loss of performance when products are used together, development of new technologies, manufacturing defects, software bugs, general industry trends including cyclical trends in the semiconductor industry, the impact of competitive products and pricing alternatives, and other risks detailed from time to time in the reports NVIDIA files with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 29, 2006. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. NVIDIA disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

NOTE: Havok and Havok 3 are registered trademarks of Havok and Telekinesys Research Limited. All other products, company names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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All trademarks and copyrighted information contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

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NVIDIA and Havok Demonstrate World's First GPU-Powered Game Physics Solution at Game Developer's Conference

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