ATI Announces RAGE(TM) SDTV and RAGE(TM) HDTV, The World's First Chips To Integrate A Full Hardware Digital Video Decoder With 2D and 3D Graphics
- Designed for all advanced DVB and ATSC cable, satellite, and terrestrial set-top boxes - Merges all video/graphics functions into a single high-performance chip for cost savings - "Set-top-Wonder HDTV" reference design now available to consumer electronics OEMs
TORONTO, Dec. 13 /CNW-PRN/ - ATI Technologies Inc. (TSE:ATY, NASDAQ: ATYT) today announced RAGE(TM) SDTV and RAGE(TM) HDTV, the most highly integrated set-top box video/graphics controllers ever developed. Each controller integrates 2D and 3D graphics, a transport demux, and either a standard- definition or high-definition digital video decoder. ATI will be exhibiting the chips later this week at the Western Cable Show in Los Angeles.
''RAGE SDTV/HDTV take ATI's set-top component offerings to the next level by integrating a digital video decoder with our already industry leading 2D & 3D graphics engines,'' said Dan Eiref, ATI's Director of Set-top Marketing. ''We want to make HDTV support a 'no-brainer' by allowing HD set-tops to be priced at little or no price premium over SD set-tops.
''RAGE HDTV is the first chip to allow OEMs to hit the critical $299 retail price point for HD-enabled consumer devices, and we see the $199 retail price point as a distinct possibility.''
''ATI's success at integrating 3D graphics, video and DTV acceleration technology into a graphics chip designed for the set top market will allow millions of consumers to cost-effectively experience the advantages of digital television broadcasts,'' said Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association. ''By offering the RAGE HDTV and DTV chips to serve multiple markets around the world, ATI is also helping to facilitate worldwide adoption of DTV and the consumer benefits it will bring.''
Set-top market background
Digital transmission standards provides significant advantages to analog standards including greater picture clarity and resolution, more channels, e- commerce, Internet access and enhanced TV viewing. With the set-top box market booming, Cahners In-Stat Group expects the annual set-top total (cable+satellite+terrestrial) sales to grow from 29 million units in 1999 to 67 million units in 2004.
North America has settled on the ''ATSC'' standard for digital television that supports eighteen high definition (HD) resolutions of up to 1920x1080. Europe and much of the rest of the world will evolve to the ''DVB'' digital television standard, and generally will deploy lower-resolution standard definition (SD) resolutions of 720x480 or 720x525. MPEG-2 is a universally accepted standard for transferring analog video into compressed digital video streams that take up far less storage and transmission space, yet maintain digital fidelity.
HD or SD digital video decoders for set-tops
RAGE HDTV includes an MPEG-2 decoder that is capable of decoding all eighteen HD MPEG-2 video formats, converting one format to another, line doubling, and other advanced video and graphics features that make it suitable for the North American ATSC HD markets.
RAGE SDTV is identical in every way to RAGE HDTV, but is limited to the decoding of SD MPEG-2 video, making it ideal for the worldwide DVB markets. Unlike other DVB MPEG-2 decoders on the market, RAGE SDTV is distinguished by its rich set of graphics features, which are now in demand from consumer electronics manufacturers deploying interactive set-tops.
RAGE SDTV/HDTV both include an ISO-compliant transport demux. The chips are pin and software compatible with each other, allowing OEMs to use a single architecture for worldwide deployment.
RAGE SDTV/HDTV employ a unified memory graphics architecture that allows OEMs to reap considerable savings. As many as three separate memories (2D/3D, transport, MPEG-2) are now combined into a single memory. As little as 8MB of memory is required for simultaneous true-color (32 bit/pixel) graphics, transport demux, and HDTV MPEG-2 decode, when using ATI's MPEG-2 adaptive compression techniques.
Best-in-class 2D & 3D
The RAGE SDTV/HDTV 2D and 3D engines are easily the highest performing in the set-top space, and are backed by ATI's long experience and 35% market share in the PC 3D graphics market. 3D graphics enables high-performance as well as family-oriented 3D gaming, improved user interfaces, fades and wipes between channel changes, and many other innovative applications. 3D gaming represents a brand new revenue opportunity for cable and satellite operators and a number of MSOs and OEMs are adopting 3D-enabled set-tops.
The RAGE SDTV/HDTV 2D engines are also leading-edge. 16 and 32-bit color depths are both supported, as is 8-bit video/graphics alpha blending. Alpha values can be set on a per-pixel basis, leading to an incredible array of special user interface effects. Many other set-top chips are limited to three or four graphics planes. The RAGE SDTV/HDTV architecture supports an infinite number of graphics planes, a must for interactivity.
ATI's two-pronged approach to digital television support
ATI has a two-pronged approach to supporting HD and SD digital video. On the PC, ATI will support digital TV using the ATI RAGE 128 PRO. The RAGE 128 PRO includes most of the hardware necessary to decode MPEG-2 video, but does rely on software processing support from the host x86 CPU for some portions of the decode.
However, for cost reasons, most set-tops have relatively slow CPUs (approximately 200 MHz), and thus cannot rely on support from the host CPU. As a result, for set-tops, MPEG-2 digital video decode needs to take place in chips that specialize in this capability, such as RAGE SDTV/ HDTV.
Set-top reference platforms available
ATI is offering to consumer electronics OEMs its ''Set-top-Wonder HDTV'' reference platform, which provides the complete back-end to an HD or SD set- top box, including a high-performance MIPS CPU, graphics, memory, flash, I/O, and multiple PCI slots. OEMs can simply plug in a PCI-based QAM/QPSK/VSB/CODFM card for cable/satellite/terrestrial reception and plug in a PCI-based xDSL, cable modem, or POTS card for communications.
The Set-top-Wonder HDTV is ATI's third-generation set-top box. The first and second-generation designs have been used by multiple OEMs to develop advanced set-top boxes.
The Set-top-Wonder HDTV is available with an integrated best-in-class Texas Instrument DOCSIS-certified cable modem, and will be available soon with a second-generation VSB demodulator for terrestrial HDTV broadcasting.
The bill of materials for a complete HDTV satellite or terrestrial set- top box, including software and a modem for web browsing, is less than $150 when using the Set-top-Wonder HDTV architecture. High-definition digital TV set-top boxes have never been more affordable.
RAGE HDTV is priced at $30 and RAGE SDTV is priced at $25, in units of 100K. RAGE HDTV samples and the Set-top-Wonder HDTV reference design are available immediately to major OEMs.
See ATI at the Western Cable Show
ATI will be showing live RAGE HDTV demonstrations at the Western Cable Show in Los Angeles, December 14 to 17th. The Western Cable Show is a leading cable broadband and multimedia show. ATI products can be viewed at the ATI booth (booth No. 4606), ATI's CableNet booth (booth A-1), and at the Microsoft booth (booth No. 2311).
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