Intel's buying Havok is a puzzler

Intel dollars might have been better spent elsewhere, but one thing this does do though is ensure Havok is optimized for Larrabee, and that has indirect benefits. Intel got a world-class gaming development team. Those are the positives.

On the negative side, this hoses just about everyone in the hardware world other than Intel. Most directly affected are Nvidia and AMD. Nvidia has a partnership with Havok to do HavokFX, IE physics on the GPU. Anyone want to place bets to this surviving, assuming it isn't so botched already that it has been brushed under the table?

On the AMD side, it allows Intel to play compiler games with middleware. Intel actively de-optimises for AMD, more than the usual not optimising for, and if this is buried in middleware, it will be a huge negative for AMD in games.

The console market is somewhere that Intel does not play any more, but may have designs on later. This may be a toe in to the next round of consoles, or more importantly, it may be a lever to arm-twist the current guys for some reason that we can't fathom.

A company that will definitely benefit from all of this is Ageia. It makes physics middleware for its hardware, and gives the APIs and software away for other systems. It is the iPod model of sales. If Intel alienates people with the buy, it will simply take the development team in house and Ageia is a big winner.

But it remains a puzzling move. If it is a Larrabee developer grab, good enough. Beyond that we don't see it being worth the money. Intel has to know that any tricks will alienate people fast enough to destroy any value Havok has. Curious. µ