Press Release
- Archives 2001
ATI’s Radeon® 8500 wins Peak Performer™ Award at recent international System Builder Summit™
World’s fastest graphics board named best new hardware product
Tuesday, October 9, 2001
MARKHAM, Ontario –
ATI Technologies Inc. (TSE:ATY, NASDAQ: ATYT), a world leader in the supply of graphics, video and multimedia solutions, announced today that its critically-acclaimed Radeon® 8500, the world’s fastest and most technologically advanced graphics board, has received the coveted Peak Performer™ Award in the Best New Hardware category at the most recent System Builder Summit™ in San Diego, California.
System Builder Summit is a semi-annual event produced by Vision Events, a Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT and ITB) company.
The Radeon 8500 graphics board was selected by individual system builders from more than 90 hardware vendors’ products world-wide. They were particularly impressed by the product’s following attributes:
-
Radeon 8500 is powered by the most advanced graphics chip in the world, delivering up to 32 percent higher performance than the nearest competitive product currently shipping (1). It features a core clock speed of 275 MHz (megahertz), memory clock speed of 275 MHz and 64 MB (megabytes) of DDR (double data rate) memory;
- TruForm™, an innovative rendering technology that helps to deliver the smoothest, most natural 3D images ever seen on existing and next-generation 3D games;
- SmartShader™, an advanced technology that is the first application of its kind to take 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. DirectX 8.1 is an integral part of the Windows XP® operating system, for which Radeon 8500 is optimized.
“When we announced Radeon 8500 on August 14, we knew we had a winner – and this very much-appreciated recognition from system builders confirms that,” said Tom Ward, Vice President, Distribution Sales, ATI Technologies Inc. “The award is very important in that system builders -- the very people at the grassroots of our industry who build PCs and know a good product when they see one -- voted Radeon 8500 the best new graphics board in the industry.
“Mark my words: with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of just (US) $299 and a core clock speed of 275 MHz, Radeon 8500 is going to fly off the shelves this Fall and into the Christmas stockings of every hard-core gaming enthusiast around the world,” added Mr. Ward. “Radeon 8500 is the foundation for ground-breaking visual effects and, complemented by the fact that it is optimized for Windows XP like no other competitive graphics board, it has set a new standard for high-performance graphics computing.”
(1) Based on 3Dmark 2001 benchmarks performed
in September 2001 (Radeon 8500 scored 7416, GeForce3 scored
5627)
Copyright 2001 ATI Technologies Inc. All rights reserved. ATI and ATI product and product feature names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of ATI Technologies Inc. All other company and product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Features, pricing, availability and specifications are subject to change without notice.
Company Background
System Builder Summit Fall 2001 took place
September 23 – 26, and brought regional market leaders in
the system builder channel from North America and Latin America
to San Diego, California, to meet with technology vendors,
international distributors, and service providers. For more
information, visit http://www.systembuildersummit.com or call
(503) 675-3550. Vision Events is a leading producer of highly
focused channel events that bring together the leading vendors
and resellers to form strategic partnerships and secure new
business in the technology sector. For more information, visit
our Web site at http://www.visionevents.com or call (603)
471-4200.
Gartner, Inc. is a research and advisory firm that helps more
than 10,000 clients understand technology and drive business
growth. Gartner’s divisions consist of Gartner Research, Gartner
Consulting, Gartner Measurement and Gartner Events. Founded
in 1979, Gartner, Inc. is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut,
and consists of 4,600 associates, including 1,400 research
analysts and consultants, in more than 80 locations worldwide.
The Company achieved fiscal 2000 revenues of (US) $855 million.
For more information, visit www.gartner.com
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).
Contact Information
For media or industry analyst support, please
visit our Web site at www.ati.com
or contact:
John B. Challinor II APR
Director, Public Relations
ATI Technologies Inc.
(905) 882-2600, Ext. 8815
jchallin@ati.com
Patricia Macdonald
Public Relations Manager
Desktop and Workstation
ATI Technologies Inc.
(905) 882-2600, Ext. 8809
pmacdona@ati.com
Derek Baker
Counsellor
BenchMark Porter Novelli
(416) 422-7158
dbaker@bmporternovelli.com
Anne Ferguson
Senior Counsellor
BenchMark Porter Novelli
416) 422-7154
aferguson@bmporternovelli.com
MaryEllen Dolan
Vision Events
(603) 471-4214
maryellen.dolan@gartner.com
For investor relations support, please contact:
Janet Craig
Director
Investor Relations
ATI Technologies Inc.
(905) 882-2600, Ext. 2631
jcraig@ati.com
