Press Release - Archives 2000

---

Intel Developer Forum, Palm Springs, Calif. - ATI Technologies Inc. (TSE:ATY, NASDAQ:ATYT) announced today that it is demonstrating the technology to provide the industry's highest quality and most cost-effective digital television receiving and display solution. It is technology that will economically bring the image and interactivity benefits of DTV to mainstream PCs. Joining ATI in the announcement are Conexant Systems Inc., NxtWave Communications and Ravisent Technologies Inc., industry leaders in their respective technology areas at the Intel Developers Forum.

At the heart of ATI's DTV solution are ATI's RAGE 128 PRO chips and add-in boards. The RAGE 128 PRO chip provides in hardware most of the DTV decode through its integrated iDCT and motion compensation technology. As a result full frame rate DTV decode can be accomplished with an absolute minimum of CPU usage. Also, 4-tap video scalers enable full screen DTV playback of the highest visual quality. The RAGE 128 PRO is unique among graphics accelerator chips in its ability to decode and display all 18 ATSC HDTV formats, including 720p and 1080i, at full frame rates.

ATI has also worked closely with Microsoft in the development of its DTV solution to ensure full interoperability with operating system software. The result is a solution that is not only attractively priced, but is also easy to use.

"ATI has brought its considerable knowledge and experience in video and MPEG acceleration to the DTV market and has worked closely with Microsoft to ensure that the full benefit of digital television will be available on mainstream PCs," said Dave Marsh, the Technical Evangelist for TV, Video, and Graphics at Microsoft.

"By demonstrating our DTV solution, we have shown that DTV reception and display will be possible at very reasonable price points," said Jewelle Schiedel-Webb, Director of the Visual Products Group, ATI. "With Conexant, NxtWave and Ravisent, ATI has assembled the best possible components for a DTV receiver/accelerator product that will provide the best possible decode of HDTV signals as well as the high quality screen images consumers are expecting."

ATI's solution includes Conexant's Fusion™ 878A PCI video decoder. The Fusion 878A provides traditional analog video decoding capability for NTSC, PAL and SECAM television applications and is also used in the ATI design to take the transport streams from the 8VSB demodulator chip, over the PCI bus to the host CPU.

For software MPEG-2/DTV decode, ATI has worked closely with Ravisent Software Inc. Ravisent's Software CineMaster¨ MPEG-2 decoding technology helps complete ATI's solution. CineMaster HDTV is the only all software-based solution capable of decoding the high bit-rate video streams associated with DTV. CineMaster incorporates newly-developed, proprietary algorithms enabling the decoding and playback of all eighteen digital television formats specified by the Advanced Television Standards Committee (ATSC) including all HDTV formats.

ATI also chose the NXT2000 demodulator chip from NxtWave Communications. The versatile NXT2000 chip demodulates 8VSB (DTV over-the air standard in North America) and 64/256 QAM (standard for cable in North America). The NXT2000 provides the technologies to ensure DTV reception anywhere signals are available.

ATI's DTV solution will be featured at a number of events at IDF, as well as in several third-party exhibits. The demonstrations accompanying many key note speeches and main stage presentations will use ATI's DTV solution and it will also be featured at the exhibit booths and suites of Ravisent. ATI's products based on the RAGE 128 PRO include, the RAGE FURY PRO, RAGE FURY MAXX and the Xpert 2000 Pro. Major OEMs using the RAGE 128 PRO include Gateway and Dell computers. Supporting Vendors

"We are pleased ATI is building on their Fusion 878A experience developed through their "TV Wonder" analog television receiver and aggressively migrating this technology to digital products" said John Graham - Vice President of Marketing for Conexant System's Digital Infotainment Division. "The ATI design provides PC OEMs with a unique value proposition that leverages the power of the newest Pentium processors and offers consumers a low-cost way to have their first eye-popping, high definition television viewing experiences on a standard PC."

"We are pleased that ATI, with its record of technical leadership and innovation, has selected NxtWave as its partner for digital demodulation of DTV signals. We believe that digital TV on a PC will be a killer app. The NXT2000 is the first chip to give the consumer the robust reception needed for the PC," said Matt Miller, President and CEO of NxtWave.

"As the industry's leading developer of digital video decoding and playback solutions, Ravisent was the logical choice for ATI as a partner in the area of HDTV," said Alan McCann, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Ravisent PC Division. "Another factor that led to our selection was due to our Software CineMaster being the only HDTV solution capable of decoding all 18 DTV formats."

---

 

Company Background

ATI Technologies Inc., the world's largest supplier of 3D graphics and multimedia technology, designs, manufactures and markets innovative and award-winning multimedia solutions and graphics components for the personal computer, set-top box and consumer electronics appliance markets. An ISO 9002 company, ATI is the world's leading supplier of video and 2D/3D graphics accelerators to OEM and retail customers. Founded in 1985, ATI employs more than 1,700 people at headquarters in Thornhill, Ontario, and in offices in the United States, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Barbados, Malaysia, Japan and Hong Kong. ATI is a public company whose shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange and NASDAQ.

Contact Information

For other ATI news releases visit our web site at www.ati.com.