MARKHAM, Ontario - ATI Technologies Inc. (TSE:ATY, NASDAQ:ATYT), a world
leader in the supply of graphics, video and multimedia solutions, announced
today it has taken performance leadership in the PC graphics industry with
the introduction of its next generation RADEON(tm) processors, the world's
most powerful and innovative family of graphics chip and board technologies
offering the ultimate in pure gaming power, 3D quality of the highest order
and unparalleled price-performance.
Building on the performance leadership demonstrated by its
second-generation RADEON chip and board technologies announced today, and
founded on the heritage of its first-generation RADEON products, ATI's new
family of graphics processors delivers unprecedented performance for both
enthusiast and mainstream computing, offering consumers the most complete
range of solutions available from any graphics manufacturer in the world.
"Today's introduction of our revolutionary, new RADEON family of graphics
processors is proof-positive of our ability to deliver on our strategy
that calls for technology leadership, improving market share leadership and
absolute customer acceptance of ATI's value," said David Orton, President &
Chief Operating Officer, ATI Technologies Inc. "ATI is breaking new ground
in high-performance gaming, mainstream 3D visual effects and mid-range
workstation content development capability, while establishing a new
standard for power, quality and value in every category in our industry."
The new RADEON graphics processor family consists of three category-leading
products:
FIRE GL(tm) 8800: Combining the FIRE GL's pioneering workstation
reputation and software excellence in OpenGL with ATI's new
industry-leading technology, the FIRE GL 8800 is easily the most affordable
mid-range 3D graphics board for CAD/CAM and the modeling and animation
aspects of digital content and creation.
RADEON(tm) 8500: The Ultimate Gaming Graphics Card
The RADEON 8500 is powered by the most advanced graphics technology in the
world, and features 64MB of DDR (double data rate) memory, digital flat
panel (DVI) support as well as dual monitor and video output, and DVD
(digital versatile disc) video playback. The first gaming card with
complete hardware support for DirectX 8.1, the RADEON 8500 will be
available in late September and has an MSRP of (US) $399.
"The RADEON 8500 clearly positions ATI as the technology and performance
leader in the enthusiast segment of the PC desktop market, providing an
unequalled visual experience for games," said Rick Bergman, Senior Vice
President of Marketing & General Manager, Desktop Business, ATI
Technologies Inc. "The RADEON 8500 moves our industry's objective of
bringing full visual reality to the PC and Mac platforms a quantum step
forward."
"With the TRUFORM and SMARTSHADER components of the RADEON 8500 graphics
chip, combined with the DirectX 8.1 environment that will first be
available in the Windows XP operating system, game developers can produce
more visually innovative and complex 3D computer graphics including higher
order surfaces without hindering performance," said Channing Verbeck,
Director of Windows Graphics and Gaming Technologies at Microsoft Corp.
"We look forward to continuing to work with innovators like ATI that
utilize the ground-breaking features in DirectX 8.1, such as the improved
pixel shaders, to help bring the game development community the best
platform for next generation Windows-based PC games."
"Beyond what ATI's RADEON 8500 will do in the way of offering a great 3D
platform for next-generation games is what it will do for current games
through its innovative TRUFORM technology," said Mark Dochtermann,
Technical Director, MumboJumbo. "When playing Myth III on TRUFORM-enabled
3D hardware, the Myrkridia, Trow and other units look much more natural and
realistic than ever before, bringing gamers one giant step closer to
experiencing full visual reality with this graphics chip."
RADEON(tm) 7500: The Performance Mainstream Graphics Board
The RADEON 7500 brings premium-level features to the mainstream market.
Coming standard with dual-monitor support, including VGA (video graphics
array) and digital flat panel (DVI) displays and integrated TV-out, low
power and acoustic levels and proven technologies, the RADEON 7500 features
64MB DDR. Available in late September, it has an MSRP of (US) $199.
"The lion's share of the market for graphics products is represented by
mainstream users who are looking for a combination of price and
performance, yet with features that enhance visual reality - and ATI has
hit the mark better than anyone else historically; and it looks like
history will repeat itself with ATI's latest offering, the RADEON 7500,"
said Dr. Jon Peddie, President, Jon Peddie Associates. "With memory
bandwidth up to 8.8GB/sec, performance that has only been seen on the
current generation of high-performance boards, the RADEON 7500 packs a lot
of punch for a mainstream price."
"RADEON 7500 builds on the strength of the original, award winning RADEON
technology," said Jewelle Schiedel-Webb, Director, Product Marketing,
Desktop Marketing, ATI Technologies Inc. "The overall value proposition
associated with the RADEON 7500 - processor speed, 3D performance and price
- is unparalleled."
FIRE GL(tm) 8800: The Mid-range Workstation Solution
The FIRE GL 8800 combines the extensive and proven workstation experience
of the FIRE GL brand with the leading edge technology of the RADEON 8800
chip to offer workstation users a fully-featured, economically-priced,
mid-range workstation solution. Featuring 64MB DDR memory and VGA and DVI
support, the FIRE GL 8800 is optimized for superior application performance
using OpenGL and Linux drivers. It is the first workstation graphics
processor in the industry to support the Microsoft DirectX 8.1 API. It
begins shipping in October.
"The FIRE GL 8800 provides ATI with a fully-featured, mid-range workstation
graphics board to complement its recently introduced high-performance FIRE
GL 4 processor," said Ian Cartwright, Vice President & General Manager,
Workstation Products, ATI Technologies Inc. "This newest addition to the
FIRE GL line will redefine the price versus performance value proposition.
In addition, it offers ATI customers and technology partners a
high-performance workstation product that is fully capable of supporting
the most intensive CAD/CAM and digital content and creation requirements."
"The market for workstation products based on Intel processors and
Microsoft operating systems has grown steadily since the original
introduction of these technologies in 1996, so much so that this market has
become the mainstream segment where most workstation computing is done,"
said Pia Rieppo, Principal Analyst, Workstations, Gartner Dataquest.
"Today, the 3D capabilities of these widely-used platforms have been
considerably enhanced, such that intricate CAD/CAM and digital content
creation applications - considered far too complex for these workman-like
products just a few years ago - are now possible at attractive price
points."
(1) Based on 3DMark 2001 benchmark tests performed in July 2001. For more
information on the benchmarking process, visit www.MadOnion.com
(2) Based on 3DwinBench benchmark tests performed in July 2001. For more
information on the benchmarking process, visit www.ZDNet.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday August 14, 2001
ATI introduces RADEON(tm) 8500, the world's fastest,
most advanced technology graphics board
RADEON(tm) 8500 offers best visual effects, unsurpassed gaming performance,
and is first chip to fully support Microsoft's DirectX 8.1 specification
MARKHAM, Ontario - ATI Technologies Inc. (TSE:ATY, NASDAQ:ATYT), a world
leader in the supply of graphics, video and multimedia solutions, today
introduced the RADEON(tm) 8500, the world's fastest and most
technologically advanced graphics board and the foundation for
ground-breaking visual effects -- affording consumers an unsurpassed 3D
gaming experience.
The RADEON 8500 graphics board, powered by the most advanced graphics
processor chip in the world, delivers up to 33 percent higher performance
than the nearest competitive product (1). It features a core clock speed of
250 MHz (megahertz), memory clock speed of 275 MHz and 64MB (megabytes) of
DDR (double data rate) memory. Available in late September, it has an MSRP
(manufacturer's suggested retail price) of (US) $399.
"The RADEON 8500 clearly positions ATI as the technology and performance
leader. Enthusiasts will find an unequalled visual experience in the RADEON
8500," said Rick Bergman, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Desktop
Marketing, ATI Technologies Inc. "With the RADEON 8500 GPU (graphics
processing unit), the industry moves a quantum step forward, towards full
visual reality on the PC and Macintosh platforms."
Major technological advancements include TRUFORM(tm), an innovative
rendering technology that helps to deliver the smoothest, most natural 3D
images ever seen on existing and next-generation 3D games; and
SMARTSHADER(tm), an advanced technology that takes advantage of Microsoft's
new DirectX 8.1 specification, including supporting Pixel Shaders Version
1.4 to enable more complex and realistic texture and lighting effects
without sacrificing performance.
"Beyond what ATI's RADEON 8500 will do in the way of offering a great 3D
platform for next-generation games is what it will do for current games
through its innovative TRUFORM technology," said Mark Dochtermann,
Technical Director, MumboJumbo. "When playing Myth II on TRUFORM-enabled 3D
hardware, the Myrkridia, Trow and other units look much more natural and
realistic than ever before, bringing gamers one giant step closer to
experiencing full visual reality with this graphics chip."
DirectX 8.1 is an integral part of Microsoft's new Windows XP operating
system, due to ship this Fall. All the features available on the DirectX
platform will also be available under OpenGL(r).
"We are entering the next generation of GPUs and ATI's RADEON 8500 has the
features to be a leader in the graphics market," said Dr. Jon Peddie,
President, Jon Peddie Associates, the leading market research company
tracking digital media. "The pent-up demand for the programmability and
range of control found in TRUFORM and SMARTSHADER is enormous and this new
technology will empower a whole new class of amazing, realistic games and
visualization applications."
Also underpinning RADEON 8500's industry-leading visual effects and
multimedia capabilities are the following technologies:
HYPERZ(tm) II, a next-generation memory bandwidth saving technology, that
boosts rendering performance by 25 percent;
[Note: There's an interesting comparison to the GeForce3's cross-bar memory
design in the 8500 FAQ linked below. Here's a clip from the FAQ-Mike]
"
Like HYPERZ(tm) II, Nvidia has a ÒLightspeed Memory ArchitectureÓ that optimizes memory
bandwidth. Both HYPERZTM II and Lightspeed offer lossless Z-buffer compression. Both technologies attempt to discard polygons that are occluded by other polygons (a process called Òocclusion cullingÓ). In this respect, HYPERZ(tm) II is far superior. HYPERZ(tm) II saves the GPU from rendering over 14 billion pixels per second, while it is estimated Lightspeed only discards 3.2 billion. Fast Z Clear has no counterpart in NvidiaÕs Lightspeed architecture.
"
CHARISMA ENGINE(tm) II, which supports full transform, clipping and
lighting (T&L) at 62.5 million triangles/second peak processing capability;
PIXEL TAPESTRY(tm) II, the RADEON 8500's 3D rendering engine, which uses
four rendering pipelines to process an incredible 2 gigatexels per second
for the highest fill rates in 32-bit color at high resolutions;
HydraVision (tm, ATI's world-leading, multi-monitor desktop management
software optimizes the dual display experience with user controllable
shortcut keys and individual application settings. The RADEON 8500 takes
advantage of HydraVision with its integrated dual display controllers,
enabling true dual monitor support, for the first time in a
high-performance gaming product;
VIDEO IMMERSION(tm) II, a second-generation technology that enables
integration of industry-leading digital video features, including DVD
(digital versatile disc) video playback and advanced de-interlacing
algorithms for unprecedented video quality.
"We are at the dawn of a new era in the 3D PC market with the introduction
of the RADEON 8500. The game development community will finally be able to
create games that closely mirror photo realism," explained Toshi Okumura,
Senior Product Manager, Desktop Marketing, ATI Technologies Inc. "Not only
will the RADEON 8500 offer the world's fastest gaming experience, but the
new technologies integrated in this GPU will enable visually compelling
gaming encounters. The RADEON 8500 clearly positions ATI as the performance
and technology leader in the PC graphics market."
Company Background
Founded in 1985, ATI Technologies Inc. is a world leader in the supply of
graphics, video and multimedia solutions for the personal computer and Mac
platforms. The pioneer, innovator and market leader in the graphics
industry, ATI provides cutting-edge technologies for the PC, workstation,
set-top box, game console and other consumer appliances markets. The
Company has more than 1,900 employees supporting customers from its
headquarters in Markham, Ontario, Canada, as well as from offices in
Barbados, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, the United
Kingdom and the United States. ATI common shares trade on NASDAQ (ATYT) and
the Toronto Stock Exchange (ATY).
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