Press Release
- 2003
ATI and 3Dlabs announce collaboration to accelerate advancement of shaders using industry-standard languages
ATI and 3Dlabs announce RenderMonkey™ Collaboration
Wednesday March 5, 2003
GDC booth #827, San Jose, CA – ATI
Technologies, Inc. and 3Dlabs®, Inc. Ltd., a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Creative Technology Ltd., today announced a
cooperative initiative to accelerate the development of the
RenderMonkey™ shader development tool suite, which
is available free of charge from both ATI and 3Dlabs. Under
the terms of this agreement, ATI will continue to evolve
the core RenderMonkey framework, and both companies will
develop plug-in modules that support the industry standard
Microsoft DirectX® HLSL and OpenGL® 2.0 GLslang high-level
shading languages. RenderMonkey will be distributed, free
of charge, by both companies.
The latest generation of programmable graphics devices – called
Visual Processing Units (GPUs) – is creating the biggest
revolution in graphics architecture in over a decade. GPUs
can be programmed to undertake sophisticated cinematic quality
graphics rendering as well as general-purpose imaging, graphics
and vector processing. High-level shading languages will
be the preferred way for ISVs to program these powerful devices – but
there will need to be a new generation of tools to enable
programmers to code, visualize, debug and manage shader programs.
RenderMonkey is a hardware-independent tool suite created
to advance the development and use of shader programs in
3D applications. It is currently being used by game developers
and content creators to speed their shader development. ATI
and 3Dlabs will work together to further develop RenderMonkey,
and work closely with tool vendors to integrate RenderMonkey
functionality into digital content creation applications.
“Industry standard shading languages and flexible,
developer-friendly toolsets are the key enablers of the cinematic
revolution,” said Rick Bergman, Senior Vice President
of Marketing and General Manager, Desktop, ATI Technologies
Inc. “ATI initiated the development of RenderMonkey
to ensure that software developers and content creators are
able to fully realize the potential of our cinematic GPUs.
We are delighted that 3Dlabs shares our vision and philosophy
of working collaboratively with the industry through non-proprietary
initiatives.”
“3Dlabs and ATI both believe that
industry standards and cooperation are the most efficient
way to cultivate and develop the necessary
industry infrastructure and market opportunities for next
generation programmable GPUs,” said Neil Trevett, Senior
Vice President Market Development, 3Dlabs, Inc. “We
applaud ATI for creating RenderMonkey and look forward to
working together to provide a sophisticated, hardware independent
development environment used to catalyze the widespread deployment
of DirectX and OpenGL shaders.”
Copyright 2003 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.
3Dlabs and Wildcat are registered trademarks of 3Dlabs Inc., Ltd. in the United States and/or other countries. OpenGL is a registered trademark of SGI. All other brand and product names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners and are hereby recognized as such.
About ATI Technologies, Inc.
ATI Technologies Inc. is a world leader in the design and manufacture of innovative
3D graphics and digital media silicon solutions. An industry pioneer since
1985, ATI is the world's foremost visual processor unit (GPU) provider and
is dedicated to deliver leading-edge performance solutions for the full range
of PC and Mac desktop and notebook platforms, workstation, set-top and digital
television, game console and handheld markets. With 2001 revenues in excess
of US $1 billion, ATI has more than 1,900 employees in the Americas, Europe
and Asia. ATI common shares trade on NASDAQ (ATYT) and the Toronto Stock Exchange
(ATY).
About 3Dlabs
3Dlabs, the leading innovator in visual processing, supplies graphics accelerator
solutions to a broad range of professionals including the Computer Aided Design
(CAD), Digital Content Creation (DCC), and visual simulation markets. Its award-winning
Wildcat® graphics solutions are available in the industry's leading OEM
workstations, in the channel through an international distributor/reseller
network, and directly to end-users at 3Dlabs' online store. For more information
on 3Dlabs products, visit www.3dlabs.com. 3Dlabs is a wholly owned subsidiary
of Creative Technology Ltd.
Contact Information
For media or industry analyst support, visit our
Web site at http://www.ati.com
For Information:
Patricia Mikula, Public Relations Manager, Desktop and Workstation
Products, at (905) 882-2600, Ext. 8809 or pmikula@ati.com
Other ATI Contacts:
Tenille Cuthbertson, Consultant, BenchMark Porter Novelli, at (416) 422-7163
or tcuthbertson@bmporternovelli.com
Contact 3Dlabs:
Jennifer Ellard, Creative Labs Public Relations, at (408) 546-6407 or jennifer_ellard@creative.com
For investor relations support, please contact:
Janet Craig, Director, Investor Relations, ATI Technologies
Inc., at (905) 882-2600, Ext. 2631 or jcraig@ati.com
