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Technology Stocks : ATI Technologies in 1997 (T.ATY) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Marc who wrote (3239)	4/23/1999 10:33:00 AM
From: Method	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5927

Report on Business: Technology GAMES & GADGETS ATI chip accelerates 3-D rivalry FRANK LENK 04/22/1999 The Globe and Mail Metro Page T4 All material copyright Thomson Canada Limited or its licensors. All rights reserved. For years, serious gamers have relied on 3-D graphics-accelerator hardware made by 3Dfx Interactive Inc. of San Jose. But now a new product from Markham, Ont.-based ATI Technologies Inc. signals the end of that de facto standard. The first card powered by the Rage 128 3-D accelerator chip, the Rage Fury is a milestone product. It is ATI's first 3-D accelerator card to grab the top spot on standard 3-D performance tests. An excellent graphics adapter in general, the Rage Fury is a very attractive choice for gamers in particular. Graphics cards in all desktop computers include powerful 2-D accelerator chips that handle most of the work of displaying everyday applications; 3-D accelerator cards do the same for 3-D animations used in games, taking over much of the burdensome work from the main processor. The result is faster, smoother, more colourful and more enjoyable game playing. The Rage Fury's specs are totally leading-edge, with an amazing 32 megabytes of memory as standard equipment, allowing for sharp screen resolutions of up to 1,920 by 1,200 pixels. The most immediate benefit of installing the Rage Fury was also the most unexpected for this reviewer; the standard Windows desktop display became so much sharper, it was as if a blurry haze had been wiped off the monitor. Given ATI's strong position with computer makers, it seems inevitable that a lot of PCs will ship with this card as standard equipment. However, since 3Dfx's Voodoo-brand standard has been dominant for so long, there are some drawbacks for people thinking of buying the ATI card. Unfortunately, a few games still work exclusively with the 3Dfx standard. But most new games support at least one of two open, or non-proprietary, 3-D standards: OpenGL, originally developed by Silicon Graphics Inc., and Direct3D, the default Windows gaming standard from Microsoft Corp. These standards act as translators, to ensure that the game software and 3-D hardware can talk to each other, and the Rage Fury works with both. ATI's Rage128 is the first accelerator chip designed to run at full speed in 24-bit mode, which means that millions of colours can be displayed simultaneously. However, many games still use 16-bit mode, with a palette of about 65,000 colors. Since some shades are created by mixing fine dots of pure color, this can produce a grainy look. Overall, the Rage Fury seems to handle colour blending a bit less gracefully than Voodoo accelerators. Newer software from ATI may reduce the speckling effect. By the end of this year, most new games will be running in 24-bit colour, meaning the Rage Fury should clearly pull ahead. On our test system, installation went smoothly, but resulted in intermittent crashes in Windows 98. However, ATI continues to improve its software drivers, and downloading a newer version of the driver at www.atitech.com cured all the problems. Aside from scoring well on basic performance, the Rage Fury also gains extra points for its nice range of bonus features, including digital-video-disc acceleration for smooth playback of movies, and the ability to output to a TV set rather than a computer monitor. Of course, things move quickly in this business. Early in this month, ATI announced that the new Rage 128 Pro chip will be available in July, and claimed it was 50-per-cent faster than the chip used on the Rage Fury. About a week later, 3Dfx shipped the first graphics cards based on its own next-generation Voodoo3 chip. Such intense competition will drive 3-D further and faster than ever, throughout the rest of this year. Frank Lenk can be reached at flenk@we-compute.com Site seeing www.atitech.com www.3dfx.com RAGE FURY 3-D Graphics Accelerator ATI Technologies Inc. www.atitech.com $299 PROS: Leading-edge 3-D performance Very crisp Windows desktop CONS: Software drivers may need update Won't accelerate some games

To: Marc who wrote (3239)	4/23/1999 2:24:00 PM
From: 18acastra	Respond to of 5927

looks like siii showed some nice progress in the q they reported today

To: Marc who wrote (3239)	4/24/1999 9:38:00 PM
From: Marc	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 5927

here's what will happen Monday as Nevyn said earlier this week, I think it's already price, let's get this behind. Intel To Unleash Latest Weapons -- Fri, 23 Apr 1999 23:46 EST Apr. 23, 1999 (Computer Reseller News - CMP via COMTEX) -- Santa Clara, Calif.-Intel Corp. is slated today to launch its latest weapons in the low-price PC market, a cost-conscious integrated chipset and a faster Celeron processor. Intel, Santa Clara, is introducing the 810 chipset, formerly code-named Whitney, at the same time as the 466MHz Celeron processor, but systems with the 810 chipset will not hit the market until June. Systems with the faster Celeron processor became available over the weekend. The 810 reduces system costs by integrating graphics capabilities onto the chipset, thus eliminating the need for a separate graphics card. Also, the 810 enables soft DVD and audio functions through software, further reducing the need for separate cards. Ron Peck, director of value PC marketing at Intel, said the chipset could allow system vendors to offer PCs in the $600 to $1,000 range. The recent trend of integrated chipsets is one in which cost is more key than performance, said Peter Glaskowsky, senior analyst at MicroDesign Resources, Sebastopol, Calif. Doug Scherer, president of The Logical Choice Inc., a system builder in College Park, Md., said he is opposed to integrated products, which he said are geared more toward the consumer rather than the corporate market. "It's all built in so there's no upgrade path," he said. "You end up having to buy new computers instead of buying new video cards." The 810 is designed to work with the Celeron chip but will support both 66MHz and 100MHz front-side bus speeds. Intel has not decided or disclosed when Celeron will move from a 66MHz to a 100MHz front-side bus but is giving its OEMs a platform to adopt the faster speed grade when Intel deploys it, Peck said. -0- By: Marcia Savage Copyright 1999 CMP Media Inc. Intel To Give Peek At Whitney Chip Set -- Sat, 24 Apr 1999 00:09 EST Apr. 23, 1999 (Electronic Engineering Times - CMP via COMTEX) -- Intel today will formally introduce its 810 chip set, which integrates a graphics accelerator with core-logic components. Code-named Whitney, the rollout is paired with a faster, 466-MHz Celeron processor, and the company sees the two as providing a unified graphics foundation for low-cost PCs. Intel also will unveil a discrete graphics chip, the 752, aimed at the mainstream PC market. Intel rolls out 466-MHz Celeron -- Fri, 23 Apr 1999 23:58 EST Apr. 23, 1999 (Electronic Buyers News - CMP via COMTEX) -- Intel Corp. is expected to formally launch a 466-MHz version of its Celeron processor today, together with its Intel 810 or Whitney chipset. Intel told Wall Street analysts last Thursday that the chip is already shipping. Intel's customers reported that it is priced at $167 and is packaged in a 370-pin PPGA. The 810 chipset will integrate a version of Intel's i752-or Portola-graphics chip, as well as an integrated audio connection. The latter feature was not communicated to OEMs until recently. Watch for more of Intel's pricing roadmap in this week's online edition of EBN (www.ebnonline.com).