More details from ATI..........
Read the BOLD.
(Full text of press release from Canada NewsWire)
ATI TECHNOLOGIES INC. LEADS THE DVD REVOLUTION
FIRST COMPANY SHIPPING DVD SOFTWARE SOLUTION WITH
HARDWARE-ASSISTED MOTION
ATI's software DVD solution provides lowest cost, highest
quality DVD systems on the market
TORONTO, Sept. 8 /CNW/ - ATI Technologies Inc. (TSE:ATY)
today announced that its hardware-assisted DVD solution,
featuring the motion compensation capabilities of its 3D RAGE
PRO(TM) graphics accelerator chip, is the leading solution on
the market for makers of DVD-enabled systems. With ATI's motion
compensation, high quality DVD content can be played through a
PC using software, an extremely low cost solution that saves
system makers the need to incorporate expensive DVD hardware
and opening the door for entry of PC-based DVD systems into the
mainstream marketplace.
The higher resolutions of PCs over TV sets results in
higher quality images than is possible with DVD video player/TV
systems. Industry analyst DataQuest predicted in a May, 1997
report that DVD PC drive systems will total about 8 million in
1997, compared to about 1 million DVD video players. By the end
of 1998, the DVD PC drive market should swell to more than 24
million with DVD video players at about 4 million.
ATI is the only graphics vendor in the marketplace
currently shipping a high quality DVD solution that enables DVD
replay through the use of hardware- assisting motion
compensation and software and is expected to continue to lead
and dominate the PC DVD market.
Crucial to the ability to incorporate a software DVD
solution into the PC has been Intel's Pentium(R) II processor
that provides the CPU power to handle DVD data streams, and the
development by such companies as Zoran Corporation of the
software needed for DVD decoding. ATI, with the 3D RAGE PRO's
motion compensation permitting full frame rates with the
software solution, has worked in close partnership with both
Intel and Zoran for more than a year to develop the world's
best software DVD solution. A number of major computer
manufacturers are poised to announce DVD products that
incorporate ATI's software DVD technology, including Compaq
Computer Corporation of Houston, Texas.
Software DVD is the champion technology that OEM's have
been looking for to penetrate the home entertainment
marketplace. With software and our 3D RAGE PRO chip, OEM's can
include a high quality DVD solution that takes advantage of the
inherent benefits of the PC over the consumer DVD video player,
and do it virtually free-of-charge,'' said Henry Quan, Vice
President of Corporate Marketing at ATI. Together we will help
this market grow tremendously and the features that 3D RAGE PRO
offers now will become standard for DVD in the future.''
ATI's 3D RAGE PRO chip off-loads demand on the Pentium II processor
The 3D RAGE PRO chip off-loads much of the computational
workload from the Pentium II, the best processor for optimal
DVD performance, and with motion compensation, provides the
full frame rates needed for high quality DVD/MPEG-2 playback.
Without motion compensation, competing hardware solutions
cannot provide full frame rate replay, resulting in jumpy
images when action on the screen involves rapid movement.
The emergence of high-performance processors coupled with
new DVD-aware graphics accelerators will enable high-quality
software-based DVD playback solutions. This lower cost approach
to DVD is very attractive to OEMs'', said Dean McCarron,
Principal at Mercury Research.''
3D RAGE PRO provides a host of critical DVD features
In addition to the 3D RAGE PRO's enhanced motion
compensation technology, 3D RAGE PRO provides such DVD-related
features as ATI's industry-leading video acceleration, a 4-tap
horizontal and 2-tap vertical high quality video scaler for
true color video display, a de-interlacing filter, video on
graphics overlay, multistream video, color-space conversion,
scatter-gather bus-master and planar YUV mode.
Home theater systems and big screen movies with
ImpacTV2(TM)
For display on large screen TV sets, ATI also offers the
ImpacTV2(TM)chip for high quality NTSC and PAL TV-out. The
flicker-free display on the TV provided by the ImpacTV2 chip
will allow computer makers to offer PC DVD systems that can
easily and inexpensively serve as excellent home theater
systems. ImpacTV2 also provides support for Macrovision 7 copy
protection to allow display of protected DVD content on a TV
set.
3D RAGE PRO the leading AGP solution
The 3D RAGE PRO chip is also the leading contender for AGP
systems, the only such chip currently on the market to provide
support for the full AGP 2X, 133 MHz solution, featuring Side
Band Addressing (SBA) pipe lining. While ATI's 3D RAGE PRO
supports all levels of AGP implementation from Frame, the
lowest level, to 1X through to 2X with SBA, only the higher end
approach will provide the full benefit of AGP by displaying all
the massive textures of AGP content on the screen.
3D PAGE PRO chip provides all the 3D a gamer could want,
and more
The 3D RAGE PRO chip represents a three-fold increase in
performance compared to the last generation controller. With
bilinear filtering for high quality texture mapping, edge
anti-aliasing for smooth diagonal lines, fog textures and
specular highlights for ultra-realistic lighting effects, 3D
RAGE PRO is also the ideal controller for the gamer community.
Price, availability, future products
3D RAGE PRO is now shipping and is priced at $30 to $36 for
10,000 unit quantities. ATI is also developing a DVD hardware
strategy which will be announced later this fall. [If software DVD is so good, then why is ATI developing a hardware solution???]
Corporate Profile
ATI Technologies Inc., one of only two major suppliers of
3D graphics and multimedia technology in the world, designs,
manufactures and markets innovative and award-winning
multimedia solutions and graphics components for personal
computers. The company is one of the world's leading suppliers
of video and 2D/3D graphics accelerators to OEM and retail
customers. Founded in 1985, ATI employs more than 900 people at
headquarters in Thornhill, Ontario, with offices in the United
States, Germany, France, the U.K., Ireland, Taiwan and Japan.
ATI is a public company whose shares trade on the Toronto Stock
Exchange.
For other ATI news releases visit our web site at
atitech.com.
Copyright (R) ATI Technologies Inc., 1997. All company
and/or product
names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their
respective
manufacturers. Features, pricing, availability and
specifications are subject
to change without notice.
/For further information: ATI Technologies Inc., Brian
Hentschel, Media
Relations, (905) 882-2600 (ext. 8130), bhentsch(at)atitech.ca,
www.atitech.com/ |
