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{{short description|Canadian technology corporation}}
{{Infobox_Company |
{{For|the company named ATI Inc.|Allegheny Technologies}}
company_name = ATI Technologies Inc. |
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2018}}
company_logo = [[Image:ATI_Logo_0903.png|ATI logo]] |
{{Use Canadian English|date=December 2022}}
company_type = [[Public company|Public]] ([[TSX]]: '''[http://www.tsx.com/HttpController?GetPage=QuotesViewPage&DetailedView=DetailedPrices&Market=T&Language=en&QuoteSymbol_1=ATY&x=0&y=0 ATY]''')<br/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;([[NASDAQ]]: '''[http://quotes.nasdaq.com/asp/SummaryQuote.asp?symbol=ATYT&selected=ATYT ATYT]''')||
{{Infobox company
company_slogan = Get In the Game|
| name = ATI Technologies Inc.
foundation = [[1985]]|
| logo = ATI-Logo.svg
location = [[Markham, Ontario]], [[Canada]]|
| logo_upright = 0.6
key_people = [[David E. Orton]], CEO|
| image = AMDMarkham10.jpg
num_employees = 2,500|
| image_caption = The former ATI headquarters in [[Markham, Ontario]]
industry = [[Semiconductors]]|
| former_name = Array Technology Inc. (Aug.–Sept. 1985)<br />Array Technologies Inc. (Sept.–Dec. 1985)
products = [[Graphics cards]]<br>[[Graphics processing units]]|
| type = [[Public company|Public]]
revenue = [[image:green up.png]]$2.0 billion [[United States dollar|USD]] ([[2004]])|
| traded_as = {{TSX was|ATY}}<br>{{NASDAQ was|ATYT}}
homepage = [http://www.ati.com/ www.ati.com]
| founders = {{ubl|K.Y. Ho|Benny Lau|Lee Ka Lau|Benny Lau}}

| defunct = {{End date|2006|10|25}}
| fate = Acquired by [[AMD]] in 2006, brand phased out in 2010
| key_people = K.Y. Ho ([[Chief executive officer|CEO]])<br/>Lee Ka Lau ([[President (corporate title)|President]])
| industry = [[Semiconductor industry|Semiconductors]]
| revenue = {{US$|2.2 billion|link=yes}} (2005)
| net_income = {{US$|16.9 million}} (2005)
| homepage = [https://web.archive.org/web/20061008230707/http://www.ati.com/ ati.com] <small>(Archived October 8, 2006)</small>
| foundation = {{Start date and age|1985|08}}
| hq_location_city = [[Markham, Ontario]]
| hq_location_country = Canada
}}
}}


'''ATI Technologies Inc.''' was a Canadian [[semiconductor industry|semiconductor technology]] corporation based in [[Markham, Ontario]], that specialized in the development of [[graphics processing unit]]s and [[chipset]]s. Founded in 1985, the company listed publicly in 1993 and was acquired by [[AMD]] in 2006. As a major [[fabless semiconductor company]], ATI conducted [[research and development]] in-house and [[outsourcing|outsourced]] the [[manufacturing]] and assembly of its products. With the decline and eventual bankruptcy of [[3dfx]] in 2000, ATI and its chief rival [[Nvidia]] emerged as the two dominant players in the graphics processors industry, eventually forcing other manufacturers into niche roles.
'''ATI Technologies Inc.''' {{tsx|ATY}} {{nasdaq|ATYT}} (where ATI is an [[acronym]] for '''Array Technologies Incorporated''') is a [[Canada|Canadian]] manufacturer of [[graphics card]]s, [[graphics chip]]s and [[graphics processing unit]]s for [[personal computer]]s. Founded in [[1985]], their main headquarters is located in [[Markham, Ontario]], [[Canada]].


The acquisition of ATI in 2006 was important to AMD's strategic development of its [[AMD Accelerated Processing Unit|Fusion]] series of [[computer processor]]s, which integrated general processing abilities with graphics processing functions within a single chip, which would become a popular option on computers in the following years, especially lower cost models.
== History ==


In 2010, AMD ceased using the ATI brand name, renaming its flagship [[Radeon]] graphics processor products with its branding instead.<ref>
Founded by three Hong Kong-born immigrants, K.Y. Ho, Benny Lau and Lee Lau, it began as an [[original equipment manufacturer|OEM]], producing integrated graphics chips for large PC manufacturers like [[IBM]]. However, by 1987 it had evolved into an independent graphics card retailer, marketing the EGA Wonder and VGA Wonder graphics cards under its own ATI moniker.
{{cite web |url=http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/358774/ati_re-branded_amd/ |title=ATI to be re-branded as AMD – branding, ATI Radeon, ati, amd – ARN |publisher=Arnnet.com.au |date=August 30, 2010 |access-date=February 19, 2011}}</ref>


==History==
In [[1997]] ATI acquired [[Tseng Labs]]'s graphics assets, which included 40 new engineers. In [[2000]], ATI acquired [[ArtX]], the company that engineered the "Flipper" graphics chip used in the [[Nintendo GameCube]] games console. They have also entered an agreement with Nintendo to create the chip for the successor of the GameCube, codenamed [[Project Revolution|Revolution]]. ATI was contracted by [[Microsoft]] to create the graphics chip for [[Xbox 360|Microsoft Xbox 360]]. Later in [[2005]], ATI acquired Terayon's Cable Modem Silicon Intellectual Property cementing their lead in the consumer digital television market ([http://apps.ati.com/ir/PressReleaseText.asp?compid=105421&releaseID=671557 press release]).
Lee Ka Lau,<ref>[http://www.giving.utoronto.ca/chairs/showchairs.asp?ID=19 University of Toronto Division of University Advancement page] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210144420/http://www.giving.utoronto.ca/chairs/showchairs.asp?ID=19 |date=December 10, 2008 }}. Retrieved February 28, 2008.</ref> Francis Lau, Benny Lau, and Kwok Yuen Ho<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ati.com/designpartners/media/bios/kyho.html |title=Partner Resources |publisher=Ati.com |date=February 7, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021103215930/http://www.ati.com/designpartners/media/bios/kyho.html |access-date=23 November 2019 |archive-date=November 3, 2002}}</ref> founded ATI in 1985 as Array Technology Inc.<ref>
{{cite web |url=http://www.businessweek.com/it100/2005/company/ATYT.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051211204408/http://www.businessweek.com/it100/2005/company/ATYT.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 11, 2005 |title=The Information Technology 100: 90: ATI Technologies |year=2005 |website=BusinessWeek |access-date=2014-08-19 |quote=The company was incorporated in August 1985 as Array Technology Inc. and changed its name to Array Technologies Inc. in September 1985. Further, it changed its name to ATI Technologies Inc. in December 1985.}}
</ref>
Working primarily in the [[original equipment manufacturer|OEM]] field, ATI produced integrated graphics cards for PC manufacturers such as [[IBM]] and [[Commodore International|Commodore]]. By 1987, ATI had grown into an independent graphics-card retailer, introducing EGA Wonder and VGA Wonder card product lines that year.<ref>[https://www.amd.com/us-en/Weblets/0,,7832_10554,00.html?redir=AAMD04#1980 History of AMD at AMD.com]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012174217/http://www.amd.com/us-en/Weblets/0%2C%2C7832_10554%2C00.html?redir=AAMD04|date=October 12, 2007}}.</ref> In the early nineties, they released products able to process graphics without the CPU: in May 1991, the Mach8, in 1992 the Mach32, which offered improved memory bandwidth and [[graphical user interface|GUI]] acceleration. ATI Technologies Inc. went public in 1993, with shares listed on [[NASDAQ]] and on the [[Toronto Stock Exchange]].


[[File:Atitechnologiessiliconvalley.jpg|thumb|right|ATI's former Silicon Valley office at 4555 Great America Pkwy, Santa Clara, CA]]
Its current President and CEO is David E. Orton (formerly of ArtX). K.Y. Ho remains as Chairman.
[[File:ATI Hercules Card 1986.xcf|thumb|right|ATI "Graphics Solution Rev 3" from 1985/1986, supporting [[Hercules Graphics Card|Hercules]] graphics. As the [[Printed circuit board|PCB]] reveals, the layout dates from 1985, whereas the marking on the central chip ''CW16800-A'' says "8639"—meaning that chip was manufactured in week 39, 1986. Notice [[Motorola 6845|UM6845E CRT controller]]. This card uses the [[Industry Standard Architecture|ISA 8-bit interface]].]]


[[File:ATI Wonder.jpg|thumb|ATI VGA Wonder with 256 KB RAM]]
== Products ==


In 1994, the Mach64 accelerator debuted, powering the Graphics Xpression and Graphics Pro Turbo, offering hardware support for [[YUV]]-to-[[RGB]] [[colour space]] conversion in addition to hardware zoom; early techniques of hardware-based video acceleration.
In addition to developing high-end GPU's (''graphics processing unit'', something ATI themselves call VPU for ''visual processing unit'') for PCs, ATI also designs "lite" embedded versions for laptops (called "Mobility Radeon"), [[Personal Digital Assistant|PDA]]s and [[mobile phone|mobile phone]]s ("Imageon"), integrated motherboards ("Radeon IGP"), [[set-top box]]es ("Xilleon") and other technology-based market segments. Thanks to this diverse portfolio, ATI has been traditionally the dominant player in the OEM and multimedia markets.


ATI introduced its first combination of 2D and [[3D computer graphics|3D]] accelerator under the name [[ATI Rage|3D Rage]]. This chip was based on the Mach 64, but it featured elemental 3D acceleration. The ATI Rage line powered almost the entire range of ATI graphics products. In particular, the [[ATI Rage|Rage Pro]] was one of the first viable 2D-plus-3D alternatives to [[3dfx Interactive|3dfx]]'s 3D-only Voodoo chipset. 3D acceleration in the Rage line advanced from the basic functionality within the initial 3D Rage to a more advanced [[DirectX|DirectX 6.0]] accelerator in 1999 [[ATI Rage|Rage 128]].
Currently it is the main competitor of [[NVIDIA]]. As of [[2004]], ATI's flagship product line is the [[Radeon]] series of graphics cards which directly compete with those boards using NVIDIA's [[GeForce]] graphics chips. As of the 3rd quarter of 2004, ATI represented 59% of the discrete graphic card market, while its primary competitor NVIDIA represented only 37%, but the two commonly trade market share majority, for example 2nd quarter had NVIDIA at 50% and ATI at 46%.


The [[All-in-Wonder]] product line, introduced in 1996, was the first combination of integrated graphics chip with [[TV tuner card]] and the first chip that enabled display of computer graphics on a TV set.<ref>[https://www.amd.com/us-en/Weblets/0,,7832_10554,00.html?redir=AAMD04#1990 History of AMD – 1996 at AMD.com]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012174217/http://www.amd.com/us-en/Weblets/0%2C%2C7832_10554%2C00.html?redir=AAMD04|date=October 12, 2007}}.</ref> The cards featured 3D acceleration powered by ATI's 3D Rage '''II''', 64-bit 2D performance, TV-quality video acceleration, analogue video capture, TV tuner functionality, flicker-free TV-out and stereo TV audio reception.
== Graphics chipsets ==
''This list is incomplete. Major product families are shown below:''
*'''EGA / VGA Wonder''' - IBM "EGA/VGA-compatible" display adapters ([[1987]])
*'''Mach8''' - ATI's first "Windows Accelerator" ([[8514|IBM 8514/A]] clone) ([[1991]])
*'''Mach32''' - VGA-compatible enhanced feature-set accelerator (32bit "true-color" acceleration) ([[1992]])
*'''Mach64''' - one of the first chips with "motion-video" acceleration (hardware bitmap zoom, YUV->RGB color-conversion)([[1994]])
*'''All-In-Wonder Series''' - Recognizable in its modern form from [[1996]] and unique to ATI, a multimedia video card offering TV tuning, MPEG/DVD acceleration, and 3D gaming on a single card. Several models also include features such as HDTV encoding and digital TV tuning.
*'''Rage3D''' - ATI's first "3D-accelerator" VGA ([[1996]]) (later products use a shortened name 'Rage')
*'''Rage/Pro''' - While inferior in 3D-capabilities to the Rendition Verite1000, the Rage/Pro's low cost, robust Windows-GUI acceleration, and hardware DVD-acceleration made the Rage/Pro and its derivatives bestsellers to the OEM market. Rage/Pro was also the first ATI chip to include a triangle setup engine, making it possible to support [[OpenGL]] in hardware.
*'''Rage/128''' - ATI's first performance+feature competitive 3D-accelerator, "best-in-class" DVD-playback ([[1998]])
*'''Rage Fury MAXX''' - Launched 2000, this was ATI's first and only foray into dual-chip videocards. Despite possessing twin Rage 128 Pro processors, it was plagued with driver issues and unexceptional performance.
*'''[[Radeon]] Series''' - Launched in [[2000]], this is the mainstream ATI 3D gaming consumer card. ATI often produces 'Pro' versions with higher clock speeds, and sometimes an extreme 'XT' version, and even more recently 'XT P.E.' versions.
**[[DirectX]] 7.0 Radeons: 7000, 7200, 7500, compare to the [[GeForce 2]].
**[[DirectX]] 8.1 Radeons: 8500, 9000, 9100, 9200, 9250, -compare to the [[GeForce 3]] and [[GeForce 4]].
**[[DirectX]] 9.0 Radeons: 9500, 9550, 9600, 9700, 9800, -much more powerful than [[GeForce FX]] parts.
*'''[[Radeon X Series]]''', a [[2004]] addition to the Radeon line - X300, X600, X700, X800, X850 - similar to [[GeForce 6 Series]]. Architecturally, these cards are still direct descendants of the original 9700 core, with various improvements and additions such as power optimization, and an increased number of pixel pipes.
*'''Mobility Radeon Series''' - A series of miniaturized versions of Radeon graphics chips for use in laptops. ATI has traditionally been the major player in this field, while introducing innovations such as modularized RAM chips, DVD acceleration, and "POWERPLAY" power management technology. More recently the M10 (mobility 9600) and M11 (mobility 9700) chips have brought near desktop performance to the laptop sector.
*'''FireGL''' - Launched in 2001, following ATI's acquisition of FireGL Graphics. Workstation CAD/CAM video card, based on the Radeon series.
*'''Imageon''' - Introduced in 2002 to bring integrated [[3D graphics]] to handhelds, cellphones, and Tablet PCs. Current product is the Imageon 2300 which includes 3D engine, MPEG-4 video decoder, JPEG encoding/decoding, and a 2 Mega pixel camera sub-system processing engine with support for 2MB of ultra low-power [[SDRAM]].
*'''CrossFire''' - This technology is ATI's response to nVidia's [[Scalable_Link_Interface|SLI]] platform. It allows, by using a secondary video card and a dual PCI-E motherboard based on either ATI's new RD480 or RD400 chipsets, the ability to combine the power of the two videocards to increase performance through a variety of different rendering options. The technology utilizes an external connector and a master video card (CrossFire edition, which must be purchased specifically) to send the rendering information to the slave card(any PCI-E based card), which sends the resulting image to the video card. Unlike nVidia's solution, the CrossFire technology can theoretically be used with any card, and should technically be able to be implemented on any motherboard with 2 PCI-E slots. This technology is not available in retail.


ATI entered the mobile computing sector by introducing 3D-graphics acceleration to laptops in 1996. The Mobility product line had to meet requirements different from those of desktop PCs, such as minimized power usage, reduced heat output, [[Transition Minimized Differential Signaling|TMDS]] output capabilities for laptop screens, and maximized integration. In 1997, ATI acquired [[Tseng Labs]]'s graphics assets, which included 40 engineers.
Upcoming graphics cards (core names) include: R520 "Fudo." Boards based on R520 called "Raptor" (name pending).


The [[Radeon]] line of graphics products was unveiled in 2000. The initial Radeon [[graphics processing unit]] offered an all-new design with DirectX 7.0 3D acceleration, video acceleration, and 2D acceleration. Technology developed for a specific Radeon generation could be built in varying levels of features and performance in order to provide products suited for the entire market range, from high-end to budget to mobile versions.
[[Microsoft]]'s [[Xbox 360]] video game console will contain a custom graphics chip produced by ATI. Gauging the performance and feature set of the ATI Xbox 360 graphics core is difficult as there is no direct parallel between the PC part roadmap and the console chip design.


In 2000, ATI acquired [[ArtX]], which engineered the [[GameCube#Graphics Processing Unit and System Chipset|Flipper]] graphics chip used in the [[GameCube]] video game console. They also created a modified version of the chip (codenamed [[Hollywood (graphics chip)|Hollywood]]) for the successor of the GameCube, the [[Wii]]. [[Microsoft]] contracted ATI to design the graphics core (codenamed [[Xenos (graphics chip)|Xenos]]) for the [[Xbox 360]]. Later in 2005, ATI acquired [[Terayon's]] cable modem [[silicon intellectual property]], strengthening their lead in the consumer digital television market.<ref>[http://apps.ati.com/ir/PressReleaseText.asp?compid=105421&releaseID=671557 press release] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050313181259/http://apps.ati.com/ir/PressReleaseText.asp?compid=105421&releaseID=671557 |date=March 13, 2005 }}</ref> K. Y. Ho remained as Chairman of the Board until he retired in November 2005. [[David E. Orton|Dave Orton]] replaced him as the President and CEO of the organization.
As the ATI Xbox 360 GPU is custom built from the ground up to be used in a console, the chip features may or may not be used in future PC parts. Some of these features include “Intelligent Memory” – a section of on-die memory that has logic built in (192 parallel pixel processors) to do features like anti-aliasing, thereby giving developers effectively anti-aliasing at no performance cost. Another feature of the ATI Xbox 360 GPU is the “True Unified Shader Architecture” which dynamically load balances pixel and vertex processing (freeing developers from having to fiddle with geometry vs fill balance issues).


On July 24, 2006, a joint announcement revealed that [[AMD]] would [[mergers and acquisitions|acquire]] ATI in a deal valued at $5.6 billion.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2488/000119312509036235/d10k.htm |publisher=U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission |title=AMD 2008 10-K SEC Filling. Pg 105 |date=24 February 2009 |access-date=26 November 2011}}</ref> The acquisition consideration closed on October 25, 2006,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ir.ati.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=105421&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=921365&highlight= |title=Press Release |publisher=Ir.ati.com |access-date=February 19, 2011 |archive-date=December 26, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081226134908/http://ir.ati.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=105421&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=921365&highlight= |url-status=dead}}</ref> and included over $2 billion financed from a loan and 56 million shares of AMD stock.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543~113656,00.html |title=AMD page |publisher=Amd.com |date=February 10, 2011 |access-date=February 19, 2011}}</ref> ATI's operations became part of the AMD Graphics Product Group (GPG),<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/InvestorRelations/0,,51_306_15086,00.html |title=AMD 2007 Analyst Day page |publisher=Amd.com |access-date=February 19, 2011}}</ref> and ATI's CEO Dave Orton became the Executive Vice President of Visual and Media Businesses at AMD until his resignation in 2007.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/InvestorRelations/0,,51_306_14668,00.html |title=AMD 2006 December Analyst Day page |publisher=Amd.com |access-date=February 19, 2011}}</ref> The top-level management was reorganized with the Senior Vice President and General Manager, and the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Consumer Electronics Group, both of whom would report to the CEO of AMD.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/AboutAMD/0,,51_52_570,00.html |title=Corporate Information – Executive Biographies at |publisher=Amd.com |date=February 14, 2011 |access-date=February 19, 2011}}</ref> On 30 August 2010, John Trikola announced that AMD would retire the ATI brand for its graphics chipsets in favour of the AMD name.<ref>
== Personal computer platforms / chipsets ==
{{cite web |url=http://news.softpedia.com/news/AMD-Really-Dropping-the-ATI-Brand-154168.shtml |title=AMD Decides to Drop the ATI Brand – Softpedia |publisher=News.softpedia.com |access-date=February 19, 2011}}</ref>


==Products==
Early north bridge parts produced by ATI included Radeon 320, 340, 7000. Typically these were partnered with a south bridge chip from ALI. They sold in respectable volumes, but never gained enthusiast support.
[[File:Ruby (virtual character by ATI).jpg|right|thumb|ATI's fictional character & mascot Ruby]]


In addition to developing high-end [[graphics processing unit|GPU]]s (originally called a VPU, visual processing unit, by ATI) for PCs and Apple Macs, ATI also designed embedded versions for laptops (Mobility Radeon), [[Personal Digital Assistant|PDA]]s and mobile phones ([[Imageon]]), integrated motherboards (Radeon IGP), and others.
In 2003 ATI released the [http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/chipsets/display/ati-igp9100.html 9100 IGP], with IXP250 southbridge. It was notable for being ATI's first complete motherboard chipset, including an ATI southbridge, admittedly light on features, but stable and functional. It included an updated Direct-X 8.1 class version of the 8500 core for the integrated graphics, based upon the 9100. Internally, ATI considered it one of their most important product launches.


"Ruby", a fictional female character described as a "mercenary for hire", was created by ATI to promote some of its products.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ati.de/ruby/index.html |title=Ruby's Headquarters at |publisher=Ati.de |date=January 15, 2011 |access-date=February 19, 2011}}</ref> Computer-animated videos produced by RhinoFX about Ruby on a mission (being a sniper, saboteur, hacker and so on) appeared at large technology shows such as ''CeBIT'' and ''[[Consumer Electronics Show|CES]]''.
The RADEON XPRESS 200/200P is ATI's [[PCI Express]]-based Athlon 64 and Pentium 4 motherboard. The chipset supports [[SATA]] as well as integrated graphics with [[DirectX]] 9.0 support, the first integrated graphics chipset to do so. Technically, the XPRESS 200 IGP is based on the X300 core. Integrated into the north bridge, two pixel pipelines operate at a core speed of up to 350MHz, and each one has a single texturing unit.


===Computer graphics chipsets===
==Market trends==
* '''[[ATI Wonder series|Graphics Solution / "Small Wonder"]]''' – Series of 8-bit [[Industry Standard Architecture|ISA]] cards with [[Monochrome Display Adapter|MDA]], [[Hercules Graphics Card|Hercules]], [[Color Graphics Adapter|CGA]] and [[Plantronics Colorplus|Plantronics Color+]] compatibility using the United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) [[Motorola 6845|UM6845E CRT controller]]. Later versions added [[Enhanced Graphics Adapter|EGA]] support.
* '''[[ATI Wonder series|EGA / VGA Wonder]]''' – [[IBM]] "[[Enhanced Graphics Adapter|EGA]]/[[Video Graphics Array|VGA]]-compatible" display adapters (1987)
* '''[[ATI Mach|Mach]] Series''' – Introduced ATI's first [[2D computer graphics|2D]] [[graphical user interface|GUI]] "Windows Accelerator". As the series evolved, GUI acceleration improved dramatically and early video acceleration appeared.
* '''[[ATI Rage|Rage]] Series''' – ATI's first 2D and [[3D accelerator]] chips. The series evolved from rudimentary 3D with 2D GUI acceleration and [[MPEG-1]] capability, to a highly competitive [[Direct3D]] 6 accelerator with then "best-in-class" DVD ([[MPEG2]]) acceleration. The various chips were very popular with [[Original equipment manufacturer|OEM]]s of the time. The Rage II was used in the first ATI [[All-In-Wonder]] multi-function video card, and more advanced All-In-Wonders based on Rage series GPUs followed. (1995–2004)
** '''[[ATI Rage#Mobility|Rage Mobility]]''' – Designed for use in low-power environments, such as notebooks. These chips were functionally similar to their desktop counterparts but had additions such as advanced [[power management]], [[Liquid crystal display|LCD]] interfaces, and [[Multi monitor|dual monitor]] functionality.
* '''[[Radeon]] Series''' – ATI launched the Radeon line in 2000, as their consumer 3D accelerator add-in cards, its flagship product line and the direct competitor to Nvidia's [[GeForce]]. The original ''Radeon DDR'' was ATI's first DirectX 7 3D accelerator, introducing their first hardware [[transform and lighting|T&L]] engine. ATI often produced 'Pro' versions with higher clock speeds, and sometimes an extreme 'XT' version, and even more recently 'XT Platinum Edition (PE)' and 'XTX' versions. The Radeon series was the basis for many ATI All-In-Wonder boards.
** '''[[Radeon|Mobility Radeon]]''' – A series of power-optimized versions of Radeon graphics chips for use in laptops. They introduced innovations such as modularized RAM chips, DVD (MPEG2) acceleration, notebook GPU card sockets, and "[[ATI PowerPlay|PowerPlay]]" power management technology. AMD recently announced DirectX 11-compatible versions of its mobile processors.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.techworld.com/mobile-wireless/3209713/amd-launches-directx-11-graphics-chips-for-laptops/ |title=AMD launches DirectX 11 graphics chips for laptops |date=January 8, 2010 |publisher=techworld.com |access-date=January 8, 2010 |archive-date=August 20, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140820020107/http://news.techworld.com/mobile-wireless/3209713/amd-launches-directx-11-graphics-chips-for-laptops/ |url-status=dead}}</ref>
** '''[[ATI CrossFire]]''' – This technology was ATI's response to [[NVIDIA]]'s [[Scalable Link Interface|SLI]] platform. It allowed, by using a secondary video card and a dual PCI-E motherboard based on an ATI Crossfire compatible chipset, the ability to combine the power of the two, three or four video cards to increase performance through a variety of different rendering options. There is an option for additional PCI-E video card plugging into the third PCI-E slot for gaming physics, or another option to do physics on the second video card.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5634 |title=DailyTech report |publisher=Dailytech.com |access-date=February 19, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110810024126/http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5634 |archive-date=August 10, 2011 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all}}</ref>
* '''[[FireGL]]/FirePro''' – Launched in 2001, following ATI's acquisition of FireGL Graphics from [[Diamond Multimedia]]. Workstation CAD/CAM video card, based on the Radeon series.
* '''[[FireMV]]''' – For workstations, featuring "multi-view", for multiple displays with 2D acceleration only, usually based on low-end products of the Radeon series (now integrated into FirePro series).


Although AMD strongly considered making the functional part of the ATI drivers "open source",<ref>{{cite web |last=Yager |first=Tom |url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/08/02/32OPcurve_1.html |title='AMD talks about ATI' at |publisher=Infoworld.com |date=August 2, 2006 |access-date=February 19, 2011}}</ref> before the merger with AMD, ATI had no plans to release their graphics drivers as free software:
ATI was founded in [[1985]], and in order to survive, initially ended up shipping a lot of basic 2D graphics chips to companies such as [[Commodore International|Commodore]]. The EGA Wonder and VGA Wonder families were released to the PC-market in 1987. Each offered enhanced feature-sets surpassing IBM's own (EGA and VGA) display adapters. May of [[1991]] saw the release of the Mach8 product, ATI's first "Windows accelerator" product. Windows accelerators offloaded display-processing tasks which are normally done by the CPU. (In fact, the Mach8 was feature-enhanced IBM 8514/A compatible board.) [[1992]] saw the release of the Mach32 chipset, an evolutionary improvement over its predecessor.
{{Quote|Proprietary, patented optimizations are part of the value we provide to our customers and we have no plans to release these drivers to open source. In addition, multimedia elements such as content protection must not, by their very nature, be allowed to go open source.|[http://news.cnet.com/2061-10791_3-6104655.html ATI statement, August 2006]}}


===Personal computer platforms and chipsets===
But it was probably the Mach64 in [[1994]], powering the Graphics Xpression and Graphics Pro Turbo, that was ATI's first recognizably modern media chipset. Notably, the Mach64 chipset offered hardware support for YUV to RGB color space conversion, in addition to hardware zoom. This effectively meant basic AVI and [[MPEG-1]] playback became possible on PCs without the need for expensive specialist decode hardware. Later the Mach64-VT also allowed for scaling to be offloaded from the CPU. ImpacTV in 1996 went further with 800x600 VGA to TV encoding. ATI priced the product at a point where the user effectively got a 3D accelerator for free.
{{See also|Comparison of ATI chipsets}}


* '''[[Radeon R100|IGP 3x0]], [[Radeon R100|Mobility Radeon 7000 IGP]]''' – ATI's first chipsets. Included a DirectX 7-level 3D graphics processor.
ATI’s first integrated TV tuner products shipped in [[1996]], recognizable as the modern All-in-Wonder specification. Featuring 3D acceleration powered by ATI's second generation 3D Rage II, 64-bit 2D performance, TV-quality video acceleration, video capture, TV tuner functionality, flicker-free TV-out, and stereo TV audio.
* '''[[Radeon R200|9100 IGP]]''' – 2nd generation system chipset. IXP250 southbridge. It was notable for being ATI's first complete motherboard chipset, including an ATI-built southbridge. It included an updated DirectX 8.1 class graphics processor<ref>Gavrichenkov, Ilya. [http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/chipsets/display/ati-igp9100.html ATI RADEON 9100 IGP Integrated Chipset Review] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303203837/http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/chipsets/display/ati-igp9100.html |date=March 3, 2016 }}, X-bit Labs, December 1, 2003.</ref>
* '''[[Xpress 200|Xpress 200/200P]]''' – [[PCI Express]]-based [[Athlon 64]] and [[Pentium 4]] chipset. Supports [[SATA]] as well as integrated graphics with [[DirectX]] 9.0 support, the first integrated graphics chipset to do so<ref>Wasson, Scott. [http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q4/radeon-xpress200/index.x?pg=1 ATI's Radeon Xpress 200 chipset] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070510231758/http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q4/radeon-xpress200/index.x?pg=1 |date=May 10, 2007 }}, Tech Report, November 8, 2004.</ref>
* '''[[Xpress 3200]]''' – similar to ''[[Xpress 200]]'', but designed for optimal [[ATI CrossFire|CrossFire]] performance.


In addition to the above chipset, ATI struck a deal in 2005, with [[CPU]] and [[motherboard]] manufacturers, particularly [[Asus]] and [[Intel]], to create onboard 3D Graphics solutions for [[Intel]]'s range of motherboards released with their range of [[Intel]] [[Pentium M]]-based desktop processors, the [[Intel Core]] and [[Intel Core 2]] processors, the D101GGC and D101GGC2 chipset (codenamed "''Grand County''"<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070116213811/http://cache-www.intel.com/cd/00/00/32/94/329441_329441.pdf Intel Boxed Desktop Board Quick Guide (December 2006)]</ref>) based on the [[Xpress 200|Radeon Xpress 200]] chipset. However, high-end boards with integrated graphics processor (IGP) still used [[Intel GMA]] [[graphics processing unit|integrated graphics processor]]s. The deal with Intel ended with the purchase of ATI by AMD in 2006, with Intel announcing [[Silicon Integrated Systems|SiS]] IGP chipset (D201GLY chipset, codenamed "''Little Valley''") for entry-level desktop platform, replacing the "''Grand County''" series chipsets.
However, while ATI had established a reputation for quality multimedia capable cards popular with OEMs, by the late 1990s consumers began to also expect strong 3D performance, and [[3dfx]] and [[Nvidia|nVidia]] were delivering. The first warning was seen with in January [[1999]] with the All-in-Wonder 128, featuring the Rage 128 GL graphics chip. While the basic 16MB version sold reasonably well, the improved but delayed 32MB version did not, because it lacked 3D acceleration appropriate for its price point. It became clear, if ATI was to survive, the company would have to develop integrated 3D acceleration competitive with the products nVidia was designing.


===Multimedia and digital TV products===
ATI’s first real 3D chip had been the 3D Rage II. The chip supported bilinear and trilinear filtering, z-buffer, and several Direct3D texture blend modes. But the pixel fillrate looked good only next to [[S3 Graphics|S3]]’s awful VIRGE range, and the feature list looked good only next to the workstation type Matrox Mystique. The 3D Rage Pro released in 1997 improved, offering a fill rate equal to the original [[3dfx]] Voodoo Graphics, and a proper 1.2 M triangle/s hardware setup engine. Single-pass trilinear filtering, combined with a complete texture blending implementation. The Rage Pro sold in volume to OEMS, due to DVD performance and low cost, but was held back by poor drivers. It was only in 1999, almost 2 years after the original launch, the drivers finally came good, delivering a 20-40% gain over the originals. Subsequently ATI learned to better prioritise driver development.
* '''[[All-in-Wonder]]''' series – A series of multimedia graphics cards which incorporating TV tuner and [[Radeon]] family [[video card|graphics card]]s onto one add-in card,<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2024-03-12 |date=2003-08-05 |title=ATI Revolutionizes the Multimedia PC Experience with ALL-IN-WONDER 9600 PRO |publisher=hartware.de |url=https://www.hartware.de/2003/08/05/ati-revolutionizes-the-multimedia-pc-experience-with-all-in-wonder-9600-pro/}}</ref> which, after being seemingly discontinued was relaunched as All-in-Wonder HD on June 26, 2008.
* TV tuners
** '''TV Wonder''' and '''HDTV Wonder''' – a chipset family providing TV reception of various analogue TV and digital TV signals ([[PAL]], [[NTSC]], [[ATSC]], [[DVB-T]] and so on) with first generation [[AVIVO]] technology, also supporting [[CableCARD]], and [[QAM tuner|Clear QAM]] technologies.
** '''Theater''' – a family of [[QAM]] and [[Single-sideband modulation|VSB]] demodulators for the Digital Cable ready and [[ATSC Standards|ATSC]] environments.
* '''Remote Wonder''', wireless remote control series for ATI multimedia products. Operates using radio frequency, away from mainstream implementations using [[Infrared communication|infrared]].


===Console graphics products===
Work on the next generation 128 GL was helped by the acquisition of the Tseng development team in [[1997]]. Designed to compete with the [[RIVA TNT]] and Voodoo2, it was notable for an advanced memory architecture, allowed the Rage128 to run in 32-bit color with a minimal performance loss. Unfortunately, at the time most games ran in 16-bit color, where nVidia’s parts excelled. The [[RIVA TNT2]] came out with improved clock speeds, and the GL quickly became relegated ATI's usual position, of a strong OEM alternative to the market leaders, with outstanding DVD performance, attractive when priced low enough.
* '''[[GameCube technical specifications|Flipper]]''' – The [[GameCube]] (codenamed "dolphin" during production) contains a 3D accelerator developed by ''ArtX, Inc'', a company acquired by ATI during the development of the GPU.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2024-03-12 |date=2001-12-07 |title=Hardware Behind the Consoles - Part II: Nintendo's GameCube Page 3 |publisher=anandtech.com |url=https://www.anandtech.com/show/858/3}}</ref> Flipper was similar in capability to a [[Direct3D]] 7 accelerator chip. It consisted of four rendering pipelines, with hardware [[transform and lighting|T&L]], and some limited pixel [[shader]] support. Innovatively the chip has 3&nbsp;[[megabyte|MB]] of embedded [[1T-SRAM]] for use as ultra-fast low-latency (6.2&nbsp;[[nanosecond|ns]]) texture and [[framebuffer]]/[[Z-buffer]] storage allowing 10.4 [[gigabytes|GB]]/second bandwidth (extremely fast for the time).<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2024-03-12 |date=2001-12-07 |title=Hardware Behind the Consoles - Part II: Nintendo's GameCube Page 5 |publisher=anandtech.com |url=https://www.anandtech.com/show/858/5}}</ref> Flipper was designed by members of the [[Nintendo 64]] Reality Coprocessor team who moved from SGI. The Flipper team went on to have a major hand in the development of the [[Radeon 9700]].
* '''[[Xenos (graphics chip)|Xenos]]''' – [[Microsoft]]'s [[Xbox 360]] video game console contains a custom graphics chip produced by ATI, known as "R400", "C1", internally as "Crayola",<ref>{{cite web |title=Ex. 2050 - R400 Document Library FH - folder_history (PROTECTIVE ORDER) — IPR2015-00325 - LG Electronics, Inc. v. ATI Technologies ULC |url=https://portal.unifiedpatents.com/ptab/case/IPR2015-00325 |website=Unified Patents |access-date=10 December 2021 |date=9 September 2015}}</ref> or more often as ''Xenos''. Some of these features include the embedded DRAM ([[eDRAM]]). The Xenos also features the “True Unified Shader Architecture” which dynamically loads and balances pixel and vertex processing amongst a bank of identically capable processing units.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2024-03-12 |date=2005-06-24 |title=Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PS3 - A Hardware Discussion |publisher=anandtech.com |url=https://www.anandtech.com/show/1719/7}}</ref> This differs greatly from PC graphics chips of previous generations that have separate banks of processors designed for their individual task (vertex/fragment). Another feature presented in Xenos is the hardware [[tessellation#Tessellations and computer graphics|surface tessellation]] to divide a surface into smaller triangles,<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2024-03-12 |date=2022-01-26 |title=ATI's Radeon 8500: First GPU With Hardware Tessellation |publisher=electronicdesign.com |url=https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/embedded/article/21213985/jon-peddie-research-atis-radeon-8500-first-gpu-with-hardware-tessellation}}</ref> similar to [[TruForm]] in terms of functionality, which is an advanced feature as it is not presented even in the [[Direct3D#Direct3D 10|DirectX 10]] specification. The recent generation [[Radeon R600]] GPU core inherited most of the features presented in Xenos, except [[eDRAM]].
* '''[[Hollywood (graphics chip)|Hollywood]]''' – Successor to Flipper. Part of [[Nintendo]]'s gaming console, [[Wii]].<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2024-03-12 |date=2009-03-11 |title=AMD Ships 50 Millionth 'Hollywood' GPU In Wii |publisher=hothardware.com |url=https://hothardware.com/news/amd-ships-50-millionth-hollywood-gpu-in-wii}}</ref>


===Handheld chipsets===
The part was updated in April [[1999]], with the Rage 128 Pro, featuring anisotropic filtering, a better triangle setup engine, and a higher clock rate. The Rage 128 Pro's [[MPEG-2]] acceleration was far ahead of its time, allowing realtime MP@HL (1920x1080) playback on a Pentium3/600MHz. ATI also ran an experimental project called "Project Aurora," marketed as the MAXX technology, consisting of a dual Rage 128 Pro chips, running in parallel with each chip rendering alternate frames. Because the MAXX required double the memory, suffered from buggy drivers, and failed to deliver knockout performance, it was not a successful launch. As a result, ATI discontinued multiple chip development for mainstream products.
* '''[[Imageon]]''' – [[System-on-a-chip]] (SoC) design introduced in 2002, to bring integrated [[2D computer graphics|2D]] and [[3D computer graphics|3D]] graphics to handhelds devices, mobile phones and [[Tablet computer|Tablet PC]]s. The Imageon 2298 included DVD quality recording and playback, TV output, and supported up to a 12-[[megapixel]] camera, with another line of Imageon products, the 2300 series supporting [[OpenGL]] ES 1.1+ extensions. The Imageon line was rebranded under AMD as [[Adreno]], and sold to [[Qualcomm]] in 2009.
* '''[[Imageon|Imageon TV]]''' – Announced in February 2006, allowing handhelds devices to receive digital broadcast TV ([[DVB-H]]) signals and enables watching TV programs on these devices, the chipset includes tuner, demodulator, decoder, and a full software stack, operates alongside the [[Imageon]] chip.


Besides full products, ATI also supplied 3D and 2D graphics components to other vendors, specifically the [[Qualcomm]]<ref>[http://brew.qualcomm.com/bnry_brew/pdf/brew_2007/Tech-303_Ligon.pdf page 10 and 15]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926060251/http://brew.qualcomm.com/bnry_brew/pdf/brew_2007/Tech-303_Ligon.pdf|date=September 26, 2007}}.</ref> [[MSM7000]] series SoC chips of handheld and upcoming [[Freescale]] i. MX processors<ref>[http://www.dailytech.com/Freescale+Licenses+AMD+Technologies/article8909.htm DailyTech report]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819220324/http://www.dailytech.com/Freescale%2BLicenses%2BAMD%2BTechnologies/article8909.htm|date=August 19, 2016}}. Retrieved September 17, 2007.</ref> ATI claimed in May 2006, that it had sold over 100 million<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=31938 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070814093327/http://theinquirer.net/?article=31938 |url-status=unfit |archive-date=August 14, 2007 |title=The Inquirer report |publisher=Theinquirer.net |access-date=February 19, 2011}}</ref> 'cell phone media co-processors', significantly more than ATI's rival NVIDIA, and announced in February 2007, that the firm had shipped a total of 200 million of Imageon products since 2003.<ref>[https://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543~115795,00.html AMD press release]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090315093128/http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0%2C%2C51_104_543~115795%2C00.html|date=March 15, 2009}}. Retrieved July 27, 2007.</ref>
By this point the pattern seemed fairly clear. ATI were good at producing low end OEM friendly parts, with good 2D features, DVD acceleration, and rounded 3D feature sets. What they had failed to do, was challenge effectively at the high end of the market. So at the Game Developer's Conference in March [[2000]], developers were curious but generally somewhat skeptical, about a new claimed sixth-generation graphics chip. This was a period when companies often announced products, they then failed to deliver on time, or on spec. However, ATI subsequently demonstrated beta silicon behind closed doors at GDC, and named the product the Radeon 256.


After the AMD acquisition, the Imageon and Xilleon were sold off to Qualcomm and [[Broadcom]], respectively.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2024-03-12 |date=2011-10-18 |title=NVIDIA and Qualcomm ARM Up Against Competitors |publisher=bdti.com |url=https://www.bdti.com/InsideDSP/2011/10/20/NvidiaQualcomm}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|access-date=2024-03-12 |date=2011-01-10 |title=Coup at AMD: Why was Dirk Meyer Pushed Out? |publisher=brightsideofnews.com |url=https://brightsideofnews.com/blog/coup-at-amd-why-was-dirk-meyer-pushed-out/}}</ref>
Finally released in [[2000]], the [[Radeon]] core became known in later versions as the 7000 and 7500, reflecting its Direct-X 7 compliant features set. The core established a number of notable firsts, such as a complete DX7 bump mapping implementation (emboss, dot product 3 and EMBM), hardware 3D shadows, hardware per-pixel video-[[deinterlacing]], and a reasonable implementation of many advanced DX8 pixel shader effects. It is fair to say nVidia products of the period delivered greater raw power in terms of fill rates, but ATI started to open up a clear quality and shader performance advantage. Still, it was only the 3 series of Detonator drivers that unlocked an unexpected 20% performance gain, that enabled nVidia to hold onto the performance crown.


===High-performance computing===
ATI proved the [[Radeon]] card had not been a one off, by following up with the Radeon 2 (R200) core in [[2001]], marketed as the 8500. While again it lacked a little in raw power compared to [[Nvidia|nVidia]]'s offerings, it offered impressive visual quality, strong DirectX 8.1 shader performance, and a rich feature set. As usual with ATI products it proved popular with OEMs, partly because it offered wider motherboard compatibility than [[Nvidia|nVidia]]'s offerings of the period. Driver support continued to be an area of weakness for ATI, although over time this was considerably improved. The 8500 finally established ATI as a serious performance and feature integrated chipset competitor to nVidia, in a period when other graphics card companies such as [[3dfx]] were going out of business.
* ATI Firestream, using the [[stream processing]] concept, together with [[Close to Metal]] (CTM) hardware interface. After the AMD acquisition, it was succeeded by [[AMD FireStream]] in 2006, rebranded as AMD Stream Processor until 2012.<ref name="=AMD Delivers First Stream Processor">{{cite news |url=https://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543~121775,00.html |publisher=AMD |title=AMD Delivers First Stream Processor with Double Precision Floating Point Technology |date=8 November 2007 |access-date=12 February 2015}}</ref><ref name="R.I.P: FireStream (2006 - 2012)">{{cite news |url=http://www.anandtech.com/show/6137/the-amd-firepro-w9000-w8000-review-part-1/7 |publisher=AnandTech |title=R.I.P: FireStream (2006 - 2012) |date=14 August 2012 |access-date=12 February 2015}}</ref>


==See also==
The 7000 and 8500 cards were warning shots for nVidia, demonstrating they could not take for granted their dominant market position. But 2002 proved to be the decisive year for ATI, with once again an unexpected introduction of a new [[Radeon]] architecture. Designed from the ground up for [[DirectX]] 9 operation, the 9700 turned out to be one of the most innovative graphics cards ever released. Furthermore, ATI beat nVidia’s equivalent part to market by several clear months.
{{Portal|Companies}}
* [[Comparison of ATI chipsets]]
* [[Comparison of ATI graphics processing units]]
* [[Fglrx]] – Linux display driver used for ATI video cards
* [[Radeon]]
* [[Video card]]
* [[Video In Video Out|Video-in video-out (VIVO)]]


===Competing companies===
At the same time ATI introduced their branded "Catalyst" driver suite, which addressed many of the quality, compatibility, and performance concerns raised about previous driver releases. And a decision was taken for core chip technology to be licensed out to third-party "Powered by ATI" board manufacturers, adopting [[Nvidia|nVidia]]’s business model. All of which together, suddenly put nVidia on the back foot, for the first time since the ill fated [[NV1]] project, to the amazement of the entire industry.
* [[Nvidia]]
* [[Matrox]]
* [[3dfx Interactive]]


==References==
From then onwards, the challenge for ATI became to hold onto their high end advantage, while filtering their technology down to the mid and low end of the market, where the greatest volume sales are made. So ATI refreshed the 9700 to the 9800 Pro in [[2003]], featuring a small and relatively quiet cooling solution. The 9800 went on to become one of the most popular and best selling enthusiast cards of all time. And in the mid range, the 9600 was introduced with half the number of pixel pipes of the 9800 Pro.
{{Reflist|2}}
At the low end the old [[Radeon]] 8500 core was clocked 50 MHz lower to improve manufacturing yields, and called the 9200. Partly because it could be cooled passively, ATI delivered a manufacturing cost advantage over the previous bottom end favorite the GeForce 4 MX. In sum, 2003 was the year ATI started to transition their high end 9700 advantage to the mainstream, and wrest control of the discrete graphics card market away from nVidia.

In [[2004]], ATI released the RADEON XPRESS 200 motherboard chipset, intended as a direct competitor to the more established nForce motherboard brand of chipsets from arch rival [[Nvidia|nVidia]]. The 9700 core finally trickled down into the low end market in the form of the 9550, a cheaper to manufacture 110 nm version of the 9600, clocked down to 250 MHz. The 9550 quickly replaced [[Nvidia|nVidia]]'s 5200 as the favorite bottom end discrete OEM card, and largely because of this, almost unnoticed ATI completed one of the most surprising turn arounds in recent chip history.
According to data from Mercury Research, ATI Technologies' market share rose 4% to 27% in the Q3 [[2004]], while [[Nvidia|nVidia]]'s share dropped 8% to 15% from 23%. [[Intel]]'s market share rose 1% to 39% in the Q3 2004, holding on to the market number 1 position, although of course Intel only ships low performance integrated solutions.

In [[2005]], ATI began shipping the x800 XL PCI-E card, an 110 nm shrink of the x800 core, originally sampled on a 130 nm low-K process. Priced at $100 less than the competing 6800 GT product from nVidia, ATI believe they have once again found a winning balance of performance, features, process technology, and yields. The card runs at 400 MHz, due to the fact a low-K processes not yet perfected for 110 nm etching. The smaller die size, is what enables the competitive pricing. ATI remain confident going forward they have the right blend of features, performance, and manufacturing cost, in their product range.

Due to the release of the Geforce 7 series, Nvidia has become the market leader once again. ATI is planning to release a new line of GPUs in response to the Geforce 7 line of GPUs with 90nm graphics chips in the middle of the 3rd quarter, codenamed R520, R530 and RV515. A final enthusiast level GPU codenamed the R580 is to be released sometime 2006.


==External links==
==External links==
{{Commons category|position=left|ATI Technologies}}
*[http://www.ati.com/companyinfo/milestones/CorporateMilestones.pdf ATI corporate milestones]
*[http://firingsquad.com/features/atihistory/ FiringSquad's History of ATI] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101220080038/http://firingsquad.com/features/atihistory/ |date=December 20, 2010 }}
{{Finance links historical
| name = ATI Technologies
| sec_cik = 0001065331
}}


{{ATI}}
*[http://www.ati.com/ ATI's official site]
{{AMD}}
*[http://www.ati.com/companyinfo/milestones/CorporateMilestones.pdf ATI: CorporateMilestones.pdf]
{{Home theater PC (application software)}}
*[http://www.omegadrivers.net Omega drivers, alternative drivers based on the Catalyst driver suite]
{{Coord|43|50|20|N|79|22|48|W|type:landmark|display=title}}
*[http://www.tweakguides.com/ATICAT_1.html Tweakguides.com "ATI Catalyst Tweak Guide"]
*[http://firingsquad.com/features/atihistory/ FiringSquad's History of ATI]
*[http://www.rage3d.com/ Rage3D] Major news and discussion forum on all things ATI
*[http://www.gmpf.de/index.php/Main_Page wikified HOWTO for ati on linux]
*[irc://irc.easynews.com/ati/ ATI's unofficial EFNET support channel]
*[http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=43.838938,-79.379547&spn=0.003227,0.007216&t=k ATI headquarters at Google Maps]


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[[Category:Electronics companies of Canada]]


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Latest revision as of 17:36, 5 December 2024

For the company named ATI Inc., see Allegheny Technologies.

ATI Technologies Inc.
FormerlyArray Technology Inc. (Aug.–Sept. 1985)
Array Technologies Inc. (Sept.–Dec. 1985)
Company typePublic
TSX: ATY
Nasdaq: ATYT
IndustrySemiconductors
FoundedAugust 1985; 39 years ago (1985-08)
Founders
  • K.Y. Ho
  • Benny Lau
  • Lee Ka Lau
  • Benny Lau
DefunctOctober 25, 2006 (2006-10-25)
FateAcquired by AMD in 2006, brand phased out in 2010
Headquarters
Markham, Ontario
,
Canada
Key people
K.Y. Ho (CEO)
Lee Ka Lau (President)
RevenueUS$2.2 billion (2005)
US$16.9 million (2005)
Number of employees
2,700 (2004) Edit this on Wikidata
Websiteati.com (Archived October 8, 2006)

ATI Technologies Inc. was a Canadian semiconductor technology corporation based in Markham, Ontario, that specialized in the development of graphics processing units and chipsets. Founded in 1985, the company listed publicly in 1993 and was acquired by AMD in 2006. As a major fabless semiconductor company, ATI conducted research and development in-house and outsourced the manufacturing and assembly of its products. With the decline and eventual bankruptcy of 3dfx in 2000, ATI and its chief rival Nvidia emerged as the two dominant players in the graphics processors industry, eventually forcing other manufacturers into niche roles.

The acquisition of ATI in 2006 was important to AMD's strategic development of its Fusion series of computer processors, which integrated general processing abilities with graphics processing functions within a single chip, which would become a popular option on computers in the following years, especially lower cost models.

In 2010, AMD ceased using the ATI brand name, renaming its flagship Radeon graphics processor products with its branding instead.[1]

History

[edit]

Lee Ka Lau,[2] Francis Lau, Benny Lau, and Kwok Yuen Ho[3] founded ATI in 1985 as Array Technology Inc.[4] Working primarily in the OEM field, ATI produced integrated graphics cards for PC manufacturers such as IBM and Commodore. By 1987, ATI had grown into an independent graphics-card retailer, introducing EGA Wonder and VGA Wonder card product lines that year.[5] In the early nineties, they released products able to process graphics without the CPU: in May 1991, the Mach8, in 1992 the Mach32, which offered improved memory bandwidth and GUI acceleration. ATI Technologies Inc. went public in 1993, with shares listed on NASDAQ and on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

ATI's former Silicon Valley office at 4555 Great America Pkwy, Santa Clara, CA
ATI "Graphics Solution Rev 3" from 1985/1986, supporting Hercules graphics. As the PCB reveals, the layout dates from 1985, whereas the marking on the central chip CW16800-A says "8639"—meaning that chip was manufactured in week 39, 1986. Notice UM6845E CRT controller. This card uses the ISA 8-bit interface.
ATI VGA Wonder with 256 KB RAM

In 1994, the Mach64 accelerator debuted, powering the Graphics Xpression and Graphics Pro Turbo, offering hardware support for YUV-to-RGB colour space conversion in addition to hardware zoom; early techniques of hardware-based video acceleration.

ATI introduced its first combination of 2D and 3D accelerator under the name 3D Rage. This chip was based on the Mach 64, but it featured elemental 3D acceleration. The ATI Rage line powered almost the entire range of ATI graphics products. In particular, the Rage Pro was one of the first viable 2D-plus-3D alternatives to 3dfx's 3D-only Voodoo chipset. 3D acceleration in the Rage line advanced from the basic functionality within the initial 3D Rage to a more advanced DirectX 6.0 accelerator in 1999 Rage 128.

The All-in-Wonder product line, introduced in 1996, was the first combination of integrated graphics chip with TV tuner card and the first chip that enabled display of computer graphics on a TV set.[6] The cards featured 3D acceleration powered by ATI's 3D Rage II, 64-bit 2D performance, TV-quality video acceleration, analogue video capture, TV tuner functionality, flicker-free TV-out and stereo TV audio reception.

ATI entered the mobile computing sector by introducing 3D-graphics acceleration to laptops in 1996. The Mobility product line had to meet requirements different from those of desktop PCs, such as minimized power usage, reduced heat output, TMDS output capabilities for laptop screens, and maximized integration. In 1997, ATI acquired Tseng Labs's graphics assets, which included 40 engineers.

The Radeon line of graphics products was unveiled in 2000. The initial Radeon graphics processing unit offered an all-new design with DirectX 7.0 3D acceleration, video acceleration, and 2D acceleration. Technology developed for a specific Radeon generation could be built in varying levels of features and performance in order to provide products suited for the entire market range, from high-end to budget to mobile versions.

In 2000, ATI acquired ArtX, which engineered the Flipper graphics chip used in the GameCube video game console. They also created a modified version of the chip (codenamed Hollywood) for the successor of the GameCube, the Wii. Microsoft contracted ATI to design the graphics core (codenamed Xenos) for the Xbox 360. Later in 2005, ATI acquired Terayon's cable modem silicon intellectual property, strengthening their lead in the consumer digital television market.[7] K. Y. Ho remained as Chairman of the Board until he retired in November 2005. Dave Orton replaced him as the President and CEO of the organization.

On July 24, 2006, a joint announcement revealed that AMD would acquire ATI in a deal valued at $5.6 billion.[8] The acquisition consideration closed on October 25, 2006,[9] and included over $2 billion financed from a loan and 56 million shares of AMD stock.[10] ATI's operations became part of the AMD Graphics Product Group (GPG),[11] and ATI's CEO Dave Orton became the Executive Vice President of Visual and Media Businesses at AMD until his resignation in 2007.[12] The top-level management was reorganized with the Senior Vice President and General Manager, and the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Consumer Electronics Group, both of whom would report to the CEO of AMD.[13] On 30 August 2010, John Trikola announced that AMD would retire the ATI brand for its graphics chipsets in favour of the AMD name.[14]

Products

[edit]
ATI's fictional character & mascot Ruby

In addition to developing high-end GPUs (originally called a VPU, visual processing unit, by ATI) for PCs and Apple Macs, ATI also designed embedded versions for laptops (Mobility Radeon), PDAs and mobile phones (Imageon), integrated motherboards (Radeon IGP), and others.

"Ruby", a fictional female character described as a "mercenary for hire", was created by ATI to promote some of its products.[15] Computer-animated videos produced by RhinoFX about Ruby on a mission (being a sniper, saboteur, hacker and so on) appeared at large technology shows such as CeBIT and CES.

Computer graphics chipsets

[edit]
  • Graphics Solution / "Small Wonder" – Series of 8-bit ISA cards with MDA, Hercules, CGA and Plantronics Color+ compatibility using the United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) UM6845E CRT controller. Later versions added EGA support.
  • EGA / VGA Wonder – IBM "EGA/VGA-compatible" display adapters (1987)
  • Mach Series – Introduced ATI's first 2D GUI "Windows Accelerator". As the series evolved, GUI acceleration improved dramatically and early video acceleration appeared.
  • Rage Series – ATI's first 2D and 3D accelerator chips. The series evolved from rudimentary 3D with 2D GUI acceleration and MPEG-1 capability, to a highly competitive Direct3D 6 accelerator with then "best-in-class" DVD (MPEG2) acceleration. The various chips were very popular with OEMs of the time. The Rage II was used in the first ATI All-In-Wonder multi-function video card, and more advanced All-In-Wonders based on Rage series GPUs followed. (1995–2004)
    • Rage Mobility – Designed for use in low-power environments, such as notebooks. These chips were functionally similar to their desktop counterparts but had additions such as advanced power management, LCD interfaces, and dual monitor functionality.
  • Radeon Series – ATI launched the Radeon line in 2000, as their consumer 3D accelerator add-in cards, its flagship product line and the direct competitor to Nvidia's GeForce. The original Radeon DDR was ATI's first DirectX 7 3D accelerator, introducing their first hardware T&L engine. ATI often produced 'Pro' versions with higher clock speeds, and sometimes an extreme 'XT' version, and even more recently 'XT Platinum Edition (PE)' and 'XTX' versions. The Radeon series was the basis for many ATI All-In-Wonder boards.
    • Mobility Radeon – A series of power-optimized versions of Radeon graphics chips for use in laptops. They introduced innovations such as modularized RAM chips, DVD (MPEG2) acceleration, notebook GPU card sockets, and "PowerPlay" power management technology. AMD recently announced DirectX 11-compatible versions of its mobile processors.[16]
    • ATI CrossFire – This technology was ATI's response to NVIDIA's SLI platform. It allowed, by using a secondary video card and a dual PCI-E motherboard based on an ATI Crossfire compatible chipset, the ability to combine the power of the two, three or four video cards to increase performance through a variety of different rendering options. There is an option for additional PCI-E video card plugging into the third PCI-E slot for gaming physics, or another option to do physics on the second video card.[17]
  • FireGL/FirePro – Launched in 2001, following ATI's acquisition of FireGL Graphics from Diamond Multimedia. Workstation CAD/CAM video card, based on the Radeon series.
  • FireMV – For workstations, featuring "multi-view", for multiple displays with 2D acceleration only, usually based on low-end products of the Radeon series (now integrated into FirePro series).

Although AMD strongly considered making the functional part of the ATI drivers "open source",[18] before the merger with AMD, ATI had no plans to release their graphics drivers as free software:

Proprietary, patented optimizations are part of the value we provide to our customers and we have no plans to release these drivers to open source. In addition, multimedia elements such as content protection must not, by their very nature, be allowed to go open source.

— ATI statement, August 2006

Personal computer platforms and chipsets

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See also: Comparison of ATI chipsets

In addition to the above chipset, ATI struck a deal in 2005, with CPU and motherboard manufacturers, particularly Asus and Intel, to create onboard 3D Graphics solutions for Intel's range of motherboards released with their range of Intel Pentium M-based desktop processors, the Intel Core and Intel Core 2 processors, the D101GGC and D101GGC2 chipset (codenamed "Grand County"[21]) based on the Radeon Xpress 200 chipset. However, high-end boards with integrated graphics processor (IGP) still used Intel GMA integrated graphics processors. The deal with Intel ended with the purchase of ATI by AMD in 2006, with Intel announcing SiS IGP chipset (D201GLY chipset, codenamed "Little Valley") for entry-level desktop platform, replacing the "Grand County" series chipsets.

Multimedia and digital TV products

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  • All-in-Wonder series – A series of multimedia graphics cards which incorporating TV tuner and Radeon family graphics cards onto one add-in card,[22] which, after being seemingly discontinued was relaunched as All-in-Wonder HD on June 26, 2008.
  • TV tuners
    • TV Wonder and HDTV Wonder – a chipset family providing TV reception of various analogue TV and digital TV signals (PAL, NTSC, ATSC, DVB-T and so on) with first generation AVIVO technology, also supporting CableCARD, and Clear QAM technologies.
    • Theater – a family of QAM and VSB demodulators for the Digital Cable ready and ATSC environments.
  • Remote Wonder, wireless remote control series for ATI multimedia products. Operates using radio frequency, away from mainstream implementations using infrared.

Console graphics products

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  • Flipper – The GameCube (codenamed "dolphin" during production) contains a 3D accelerator developed by ArtX, Inc, a company acquired by ATI during the development of the GPU.[23] Flipper was similar in capability to a Direct3D 7 accelerator chip. It consisted of four rendering pipelines, with hardware T&L, and some limited pixel shader support. Innovatively the chip has 3 MB of embedded 1T-SRAM for use as ultra-fast low-latency (6.2 ns) texture and framebuffer/Z-buffer storage allowing 10.4 GB/second bandwidth (extremely fast for the time).[24] Flipper was designed by members of the Nintendo 64 Reality Coprocessor team who moved from SGI. The Flipper team went on to have a major hand in the development of the Radeon 9700.
  • Xenos – Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game console contains a custom graphics chip produced by ATI, known as "R400", "C1", internally as "Crayola",[25] or more often as Xenos. Some of these features include the embedded DRAM (eDRAM). The Xenos also features the “True Unified Shader Architecture” which dynamically loads and balances pixel and vertex processing amongst a bank of identically capable processing units.[26] This differs greatly from PC graphics chips of previous generations that have separate banks of processors designed for their individual task (vertex/fragment). Another feature presented in Xenos is the hardware surface tessellation to divide a surface into smaller triangles,[27] similar to TruForm in terms of functionality, which is an advanced feature as it is not presented even in the DirectX 10 specification. The recent generation Radeon R600 GPU core inherited most of the features presented in Xenos, except eDRAM.
  • Hollywood – Successor to Flipper. Part of Nintendo's gaming console, Wii.[28]

Handheld chipsets

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  • Imageon – System-on-a-chip (SoC) design introduced in 2002, to bring integrated 2D and 3D graphics to handhelds devices, mobile phones and Tablet PCs. The Imageon 2298 included DVD quality recording and playback, TV output, and supported up to a 12-megapixel camera, with another line of Imageon products, the 2300 series supporting OpenGL ES 1.1+ extensions. The Imageon line was rebranded under AMD as Adreno, and sold to Qualcomm in 2009.
  • Imageon TV – Announced in February 2006, allowing handhelds devices to receive digital broadcast TV (DVB-H) signals and enables watching TV programs on these devices, the chipset includes tuner, demodulator, decoder, and a full software stack, operates alongside the Imageon chip.

Besides full products, ATI also supplied 3D and 2D graphics components to other vendors, specifically the Qualcomm[29] MSM7000 series SoC chips of handheld and upcoming Freescale i. MX processors[30] ATI claimed in May 2006, that it had sold over 100 million[31] 'cell phone media co-processors', significantly more than ATI's rival NVIDIA, and announced in February 2007, that the firm had shipped a total of 200 million of Imageon products since 2003.[32]

After the AMD acquisition, the Imageon and Xilleon were sold off to Qualcomm and Broadcom, respectively.[33][34]

High-performance computing

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See also

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Competing companies

[edit]

References

[edit]
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  2. ^ University of Toronto Division of University Advancement page Archived December 10, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved February 28, 2008.
  3. ^ "Partner Resources". Ati.com. February 7, 2011. Archived from the original on November 3, 2002. Retrieved November 23, 2019.
  4. ^ "The Information Technology 100: 90: ATI Technologies". BusinessWeek. 2005. Archived from the original on December 11, 2005. Retrieved August 19, 2014. The company was incorporated in August 1985 as Array Technology Inc. and changed its name to Array Technologies Inc. in September 1985. Further, it changed its name to ATI Technologies Inc. in December 1985.
  5. ^ History of AMD at AMD.com. Archived October 12, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ^ History of AMD – 1996 at AMD.com. Archived October 12, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ^ press release Archived March 13, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ "AMD 2008 10-K SEC Filling. Pg 105". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. February 24, 2009. Retrieved November 26, 2011.
  9. ^ "Press Release". Ir.ati.com. Archived from the original on December 26, 2008. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  10. ^ "AMD page". Amd.com. February 10, 2011. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  11. ^ "AMD 2007 Analyst Day page". Amd.com. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  12. ^ "AMD 2006 December Analyst Day page". Amd.com. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  13. ^ "Corporate Information – Executive Biographies at". Amd.com. February 14, 2011. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  14. ^ "AMD Decides to Drop the ATI Brand – Softpedia". News.softpedia.com. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  15. ^ "Ruby's Headquarters at". Ati.de. January 15, 2011. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  16. ^ "AMD launches DirectX 11 graphics chips for laptops". techworld.com. January 8, 2010. Archived from the original on August 20, 2014. Retrieved January 8, 2010.
  17. ^ "DailyTech report". Dailytech.com. Archived from the original on August 10, 2011. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  18. ^ Yager, Tom (August 2, 2006). "'AMD talks about ATI' at". Infoworld.com. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  19. ^ Gavrichenkov, Ilya. ATI RADEON 9100 IGP Integrated Chipset Review Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, X-bit Labs, December 1, 2003.
  20. ^ Wasson, Scott. ATI's Radeon Xpress 200 chipset Archived May 10, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, Tech Report, November 8, 2004.
  21. ^ Intel Boxed Desktop Board Quick Guide (December 2006)
  22. ^ "ATI Revolutionizes the Multimedia PC Experience with ALL-IN-WONDER 9600 PRO". hartware.de. August 5, 2003. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
  23. ^ "Hardware Behind the Consoles - Part II: Nintendo's GameCube Page 3". anandtech.com. December 7, 2001. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
  24. ^ "Hardware Behind the Consoles - Part II: Nintendo's GameCube Page 5". anandtech.com. December 7, 2001. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
  25. ^ "Ex. 2050 - R400 Document Library FH - folder_history (PROTECTIVE ORDER) — IPR2015-00325 - LG Electronics, Inc. v. ATI Technologies ULC". Unified Patents. September 9, 2015. Retrieved December 10, 2021.
  26. ^ "Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PS3 - A Hardware Discussion". anandtech.com. June 24, 2005. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
  27. ^ "ATI's Radeon 8500: First GPU With Hardware Tessellation". electronicdesign.com. January 26, 2022. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
  28. ^ "AMD Ships 50 Millionth 'Hollywood' GPU In Wii". hothardware.com. March 11, 2009. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
  29. ^ page 10 and 15. Archived September 26, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  30. ^ DailyTech report. Archived August 19, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved September 17, 2007.
  31. ^ "The Inquirer report". Theinquirer.net. Archived from the original on August 14, 2007. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  32. ^ AMD press release. Archived March 15, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved July 27, 2007.
  33. ^ "NVIDIA and Qualcomm ARM Up Against Competitors". bdti.com. October 18, 2011. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
  34. ^ "Coup at AMD: Why was Dirk Meyer Pushed Out?". brightsideofnews.com. January 10, 2011. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
  35. ^ "AMD Delivers First Stream Processor with Double Precision Floating Point Technology". AMD. November 8, 2007. Retrieved February 12, 2015.
  36. ^ "R.I.P: FireStream (2006 - 2012)". AnandTech. August 14, 2012. Retrieved February 12, 2015.
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