Press Release
- 2004
ATI introduces top-to-bottom family of PCI
Express graphics cards for consumer and commercial desktop systems
Radeon® X800, Radeon® X600
and Radeon® X300 cards deliver best-in-class graphics and native PCI
Express support
Tuesday June 01, 2004
MARKHAM, ON – ATI Technologies Inc.
(TSX: ATY, NASDAQ: ATYT) today launched its Radeon® X800,
Radeon® X600 and Radeon® X300 Visual Processing Units
(GPUs), the first PCI Express graphics chips in the industry.
ATI’s new Radeon X-series products are built using leading-edge
process technologies and deliver the best graphics performance
at every price point – from the best entry-level performance
with the Radeon X300 to the absolute best performance with the
Radeon X800.
As the PC industry prepares for a widespread transition to PCI
Express, which replaces both PCI and AGP, the legacy interconnect
standards, ATI is launching its Radeon X-series of graphics cards.
They deliver industry-leading DirectX® 9 performance, stunning
graphics and great value for the entry-level, performance and
ultra-high-end segments of the PC market. The Radeon X-series
is now shipping to customers to help them prepare for the worldwide
launch of PCI Express systems.
The Radeon X300 is the industry’s first graphics processor
built using the advanced 110-nanometer silicon process from TSMC.
This allows ATI to deliver a quad-pipe, DirectX 9 architecture
with exceptional value and with excellent performance in today’s
advanced DirectX 9 games – a first in the industry. The
feature-rich architecture includes support for fast multisampling
anti-aliasing, full-speed, full-precision shaders and delivers
twice the performance of previous entry-level offerings.
Both the Radeon X600 and Radeon X800 are built using TSMC’s
low k, 130-nanometer silicon process to deliver high-speed, high-performance
visual processors for home or office use. Featuring advanced
image quality and performance enhancing technologies originally
found only in high-end GPUs, the Radeon X600 is perfect for the
high-volume mainstream and performance segments of the market.
For enthusiasts and power users, the Radeon X800 enables high-definition
gaming through its award-winning performance and exclusive features
such as 3Dc™, ATI’s new image enhancement compression
technology. 3Dc easily allows game developers to create better-looking
games by using high-resolution normal maps. The Radeon X800’s
highly parallel, scalable architecture, high-speed GDDR3 memory
and high engine clock speeds makes the Radeon X800 products the
fastest on the planet.
“It has been our focus and commitment, since the early
development of PCI Express, to be the graphics card of choice
for OEMs and system integrators at this critical transition,” said
Rick Bergman, Senior Vice President Marketing and General Manager,
Desktop, ATI Technologies. “Our customers wanted native
PCI Express for their systems and we delivered. As OEMs and system
builders announce their new systems over the coming weeks that
will be apparent.”
ATI’s Radeon X-series visual processors use a full, native
16-lane PCI Express bus interconnect to transfer data between
the GPU and CPU in both directions simultaneously. They offer
flexible support for multi-display configurations including VGA,
DVI and TV out. The Radeon X-series of products are supported
by ATI’s Catalyst suite of software which includes a unified
display driver and Hydravision, ATI’s multi-display management
software.
ATI and its worldwide board partners will offer several configurations
of graphics boards based on the Radeon X800, Radeon X600 and
Radeon X300 GPUs. Initially ATI and its board partners will focus
on supplying products to OEMs, system builders and channel distributors
to speed their introduction of PCI Express systems. As the upgrade
and built-it-yourself market develops, both ATI and its partners
will offer Radeon X800, Radeon X600 and Radeon X300 products
in various configurations through retail.
ATI’s partners include ABIT, ASUS, Celestica, Club 3D,
Connect 3D, Diamond, Elsa, FIC, Gigabyte, Hightech Information
Systems, Info-Tek, MSI, Sapphire, Tul, VisionTek, Xpertvision
and Yuan.
System integrators and OEMs will begin to announce new PCI
Express systems, including ATI GPUs, later this month.
For additional information regarding ATI’s PCI Express
efforts and other newly introduced PCI Express products for the
workstation and notebook markets please visit www.ati.com.
Copyright
2004 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.
About ATI Technologies
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
2003 revenues in excess of US $1.3 billion, ATI has more than 2,500
employees in the Americas, Europe and Asia. ATI common shares trade
on NASDAQ (ATYT) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (ATY).
Contact Information
For media or industry analyst support, visit our Web site
at http://www.ati.com .
Other ATI Contacts:
Tenille Kennedy, Consultant, Porter Novelli Canada, at (416) 422-7163, or tenille.kennedy@porternovelli.com
For media inquiries:
Patti Mikula, Public Relations Manager, at
(905) 882-2600, Ext. 8809 or pmikula@ati.com
For investor relations support, please contact:
Janet Craig, Director, Investor Relations, ATI Technologies Inc., at (905) 882-2600,
Ext. 2631 or janet@ati.com
