INQ: "AMD teams up with Havok for physics"

[AmberClad]

EDIT: Here's the official AMD press release.

Strange bedfellows indeed, with Intel and AMD teaming up on physics, and AMD/Nvidia/VIA teaming up on their own version of USB 3.0...

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AMD AND INTEL are teaming up to backhand Nvidia in the physics arena. They are presenting a unified front to shut out NV for the first time.

If you remember, NV bought Ageia a while ago, and Intel owns Havok. Until today, this left ATI out in the cold; they could do their own and end up with a situation where each GPU has it's own physics, or simply sit out the fray. They wisely chose to partner with Havok/Intel, and in doing so, marginalise Nvidia.
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[ViRGE]

This is a really weird press release. If Havok hasn't been doing QA to make sure their middleware runs well on AMD processors they're definitely screwing up as developers. So a press release saying that they're working with AMD doesn't really amount to anything. Meanwhile I'm not sure what to make of the Radeon blurb; Havok doesn't want to be doing GPU physics (their last product was a bust) and I'm sure Intel doesn't want them doing that either. Either it's posturing to make each other look better or saber ratting with NVIDIA, possibly both.