Intel said on Friday it would buy Havok Inc, a provider of software and services to the games and movie industries, as the world's top chipmaker seeks to beef up its visual computing and graphics efforts. The privately held Irish company's technology has been used in some of the most widely known video game titles, including "BioShock," "Stranglehold," "Halo 2," and "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."

"Havok is a proven leader in physics technology for gaming and digital content, and will become a key element of Intel's visual computing and graphics efforts," said Renee J. James, vice president and general manager of Intel's Software and Solutions Group.

The deal comes ahead of Intel's biggest technical conference, the Intel Developer Forum, in San Francisco next week. Intel is expected to expand on plans for next-generation chip making technology, commonly known as 45 nanometer, and give more details on its forthcoming chip design change.

Havok's collection of software development tools is used by game and digital-animation creators to build realistic video games for myriad types of hardware and digitally animated movies, Intel said in a statement.

The deal could also heighten competition with Intel's biggest rival in microprocessors, AMD , which acquired video chip company ATI Technologies nearly a year ago.

Intel has so far partnered closely with ATI rival Nvidia for video-processing chips used in personal computers.

Havok, a Dublin-based company founded in 1998, will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel and would continue to operate as an independent business.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.