SHOWCASE: Our team is currently in Computex Taipei and they’ve been busy covering the event here and putting videos up for this post.

The first video shows Mr. Drew Henry, General Manager, Desktop GPU Business Unit from NVIDIA and Mr. Murray Vince, General Manager OEM Division, Microsoft, demonstrating video encoding speeds of Windows 7 using DirectX Compute. Of course, there’s a tidbit segment where Mr. Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA CEO went on stage to solve a slight wardrobe malfunction. For additional coverage of the conference, including videos, go here.

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Games utilizing the Unreal Engine 3 like Epic Games' UT3 had PhysX support since 2007 but it relied heavily on a PhysX hardware acceleration on the PC. Would a software-based PhysX API and engine take this idea further with the consoles?

CORP TALK: Looks like NVIDIA’s been keeping busy of late. The graphics company has announced the signing of a tools and middleware license agreement with Sony (for the PS3) and Nintendo (for the Wii console).

This roughly means that developers for the PS3 and Wii can now use the NVIDIA PhysX technology software development kit (SDK) to author and preview physics effects in real time while developing games for the platforms. The kit consists of an application programming interface (API) software, with robust physics engine, designed to give developers, animators, level designers and artists greater control over character and object physical interactions.

The scalable nature of the physics engine also means that games will look more realistic, more interactive, persistent (constantly evolving) and natural.  What’s even more interesting is NVIDIA’s aggressive move into the software development side of the console gaming sphere, after battling it out on the desktop and notebook front, regardless (for now at least) of whether the hardware comes with an NVIDIA-based chipset or not.

For a list of PhysX-supported games (for PC/Mac and console) to date, check it out here. One thing’s for sure, hopefully, we’ll see more realistic Sixaxis- or Wii motion-controlled games on the PS3 and Wii respectively. (Editor opinions: 1)

Vijay Anand, Editor, HardwareZone.com

Vijay (HardwareZone.com): There are only two major names for game physics engines - PhysX and Havok. While Havok is free for PC game developers, that price isn’t applicable to integrate it with the game nor is it available free for console game developers.

PhysX charges a licensing fee, but it has extensive support from the team behind it to help optimize physics effects for the required games and integrate the PhysX engine into the game. To the game developers, NVIDIA’s extensive support and commitment is their value propostion to delivering a great game despite the cost involved over Havok.

We do wonder if this tie-up with the Wii for PhysX-enabled games could signal the use of an NVIDIA GPU or platform for the next generation Wii. It’s too early to tell, but there could be a small chance with this PhysX development.

T&A: NVIDIA has unveiled the fastest notebook GPU in the market at CeBIT 2009 - the GeForce GTX 280M - which is able to perform 50% better than previous generation enthusiast notebook GPUs.

According to NVIDIA, the GeForce GTX 280M GPU is currently the world's fastest notebook GPU.

The line-up also includes the GeForce 260M GPU for enthusiast notebooks, and GeForce GTS 160M and 150M GPUs for high-performance, sleek notebooks. The GTX 200M series GPUs are built on 55-nanometer process based on the G92 GPU architecture. 

Basically, two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M GPUs can be paired (on NVIDIA SLI technology) to really pump up graphics performance.  The GTX 200M and GTS 100M series GPUs feature NVIDIA CUDA computing architecture, allowing software developers to compile and code algorithms for the GPU. (Editor opinions: 1)

Vijay Anand, Editor, HardwareZone.com

Vijay (HardwareZone.com): Kudos to NVIDIA for improving notebook graphics performance with newer GPUs for the performance notebook market, but we could really benefit from the newer GT200 based GPU architecture rather than grind the existing G92 core that has been extensively featured in three different generations of GPU models.

The CeBIT 09-announced ASUS Lamborghini VX5 boasts a 1-terabyte solid state drive, Core 2 Quad processor, 16-inch Full HD display, NVIDIA GeForce graphics and Blu-ray drive.

T&A: Looks like ultra-large storage space with no moving parts is fast becoming a hot topic, especially when it comes bundled in a top-of-the-line notebook. Unveiled at the CeBIT tradeshow, currently ongoing in Hannover, Germany (of which yes, our Vijay Anand, Editor for HardwareZone.com is there reporting), ASUS has revealed its latest ASUS Lamborghini VX5 notebook which packs the 1-terabyte solid state drive (SSD). 

The notebook itself boasts an Intel Core 2 Quad processor, 4GB memory, 16.9-inch Full HD display, an NVIDIA GeForce GT130M graphics chipset with GDDR3 1GB VRAM, illuminated keyboard and a Blu-ray Disc combo optical drive. 

No pricing info yet, but we’re guessing it’s going to be as stratospheric as the high-end specs here.