ATI Technologies
Encyclopedia
ATI Technologies Inc. was a semiconductor technology
corporation based in Markham
, Ontario, Canada, that specialized in the development of graphics processing unit
s and chipsets. Founded in 1985 as Array Technologies Inc., the company was listed publicly in 1993 and was acquired by Advanced Micro Devices
(AMD) in 2006. As a major fabrication-less or fabless semiconductor company
, ATI conducted research and development
in-house and outsourced
the manufacturing
and assembly of its products. 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
generation of computer processors, which integrated general processing abilities with graphics processing functions within a single chip. The ATI brand name was removed from AMD's graphics processor products in 2010.
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. 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 stock listed on NASDAQ
and the Toronto Stock Exchange
.
In 1994, the Mach64 accelerator debuted, powering the Graphics Xpression and Graphics Pro Turbo, offering hardware support for YUV
-to-RGB color 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 the 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 to display computer graphics on a TV set . The cards featured 3D acceleration powered by ATI's 3D Rage II, 64-bit 2D performance, TV-quality video acceleration, analog video capture, TV tuner functionality, flicker-free TV-out and stereo TV audio reception.
ATI made an entrance into the mobile computing sector by introducing 3D-graphics acceleration to laptops in 1996. The Mobility product line had to meet requirements different from desktop PC, 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
was 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 Nintendo GameCube
game console. They have also created a modified version of the chip (codenamed Hollywood
) for the successor of the GameCube, the Wii
. ATI was contracted by Microsoft
to create 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 . 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 was made that ATI would be acquired
by Advanced Micro Devices
in a deal valued at $5.6 billion . The acquisition consideration closed on October 25, 2006, and included over $2 billion financed from a loan and 56 million shares of AMD stock . ATI's operations were folded into AMD Graphics Product Group (GPG), and ATI's CEO Dave Orton became the Executive Vice President of Visual and Media Businesses at AMD until his resignation in 2007 . 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 . On 30 August 2010, it was announced that AMD was retiring the ATI brand for its graphics chipsets in favor of the AMD name .
In addition to developing high-end 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), PDA
s 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 . 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
.
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") based on the Radeon Xpress 200
chipset. However, high-end boards with integrated graphics processor (IGP) still used Intel GMA
integrated graphics processor
s. 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.
Besides full products, ATI also supplied 3D and 2D graphics components to other vendors, specifically the Qualcomm
MSM7000
series SoC chips of handheld and upcoming Freescale i. MX processors ATI claimed in May 2006, that it had sold over 100 million '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 . In late 2008, the entire handheld division was sold off to Qualcomm
, so there will be no new Imageon products.
and assisted development of open-source drivers, and available for most platforms: Windows XP
, Windows Vista
, Microsoft
Windows 7, Mac OS X
, and Linux
. Linux users can also opt to use open-source drivers.
, or at least provide the necessary documentation for the community to write their own drivers. In a 2002 interview with AMD official Hal Speed, it was suggested that AMD were strongly considering making the functional part of the ATI drivers "open source" However, until the merger with AMD, ATI had no plans to release their graphics drivers as free software:
.
Since 2007 ATI has partly cooperated with the development of a free graphics drivers, but have not made their Catalyst drivers free. The programming specifications for a number of chipsets and features were published in several rounds. This greatly changed their support of the development of free graphics drivers, as until that moment only unsupported free drivers existed. Besides releasing the specifications, ATI also funded the development of new "open source" drivers, and has even hired some employees to actively work on free software drivers..
Semiconductor industry
The semiconductor industry is the aggregate collection of companies engaged in the design and fabrication of semiconductor devices. It formed around 1960, once the fabrication of semiconductors became a viable business...
corporation based in Markham
Markham, Ontario
Markham is a town in the Regional Municipality of York, located within the Greater Toronto Area of Southern Ontario, Canada. The population was 261,573 at the 2006 Canadian census...
, Ontario, Canada, that specialized in the development of graphics processing unit
Graphics processing unit
A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display...
s and chipsets. Founded in 1985 as Array Technologies Inc., the company was listed publicly in 1993 and was acquired by Advanced Micro Devices
Advanced Micro Devices
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. or AMD is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Sunnyvale, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for commercial and consumer markets...
(AMD) in 2006. As a major fabrication-less or fabless semiconductor company
Fabless semiconductor company
A fabless semiconductor company specializes in the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing the fabrication or "fab" of the devices to a specialized manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry...
, ATI conducted research and development
Research and development
The phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of...
in-house and outsourced
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is the process of contracting a business function to someone else.-Overview:The term outsourcing is used inconsistently but usually involves the contracting out of a business function - commonly one previously performed in-house - to an external provider...
the manufacturing
Manufacturing
Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...
and assembly of its products. ATI and its chief rival Nvidia
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
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
AMD Fusion
AMD Fusion is the marketing name for a series of APUs by AMD. There are two flavors of Fusion currently available, one with its CPU logic based on the Bobcat core and the other its CPU logic based on the 10h core. In both cases the GPU logic is HD6xxx, which itself is based on the mobile variant of...
generation of computer processors, which integrated general processing abilities with graphics processing functions within a single chip. The ATI brand name was removed from AMD's graphics processor products in 2010.
History
Lee Ka Lau, Benny Lau, and Kwok Yuen Ho founded ATI in 1985 as Array Technologies Incorporated. Working primarily in the OEMOriginal Equipment Manufacturer
An original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, manufactures products or components that are purchased by a company and retailed under that purchasing company's brand name. OEM refers to the company that originally manufactured the product. When referring to automotive parts, OEM designates a...
field, ATI produced integrated graphics cards for PC manufacturers such as IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
and Commodore
Commodore International
Commodore is the commonly used name for Commodore Business Machines , the U.S.-based home computer manufacturer and electronics manufacturer headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania, which also housed Commodore's corporate parent company, Commodore International Limited...
. By 1987, ATI had grown into an independent graphics card retailer, introducing EGA Wonder and VGA Wonder card product lines that year. 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
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
acceleration. ATI Technologies Inc. went public in 1993 with stock listed on NASDAQ
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
and the Toronto Stock Exchange
Toronto Stock Exchange
Toronto Stock Exchange is the largest stock exchange in Canada, the third largest in North America and the seventh largest in the world by market capitalisation. Based in Canada's largest city, Toronto, it is owned by and operated as a subsidiary of the TMX Group for the trading of senior equities...
.
In 1994, the Mach64 accelerator debuted, powering the Graphics Xpression and Graphics Pro Turbo, offering hardware support for YUV
YUV
YUV is a color space typically used as part of a color image pipeline. It encodes a color image or video taking human perception into account, allowing reduced bandwidth for chrominance components, thereby typically enabling transmission errors or compression artifacts to be more efficiently...
-to-RGB color space
Color space
A color model is an abstract mathematical model describing the way colors can be represented as tuples of numbers, typically as three or four values or color components...
conversion in addition to hardware zoom; early techniques of hardware-based video acceleration.
ATI introduced its first combination of 2D and 3D
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
accelerator under the name 3D Rage
ATI Rage
The ATI Rage is a series of graphics chipsets offering GUI 2D acceleration, video acceleration, and 3D acceleration. It is the successor to the Mach series of 2D accelerators.-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
ATI Rage
The ATI Rage is a series of graphics chipsets offering GUI 2D acceleration, video acceleration, and 3D acceleration. It is the successor to the Mach series of 2D accelerators.-3D RAGE :...
was one of the first viable 2D-plus-3D alternatives to 3Dfx
3dfx
3dfx Interactive was a company that specialized in the manufacturing of 3D graphics processing units and, later, graphics cards. It was a pioneer in the field for several years in the late 1990s until 2000 when it underwent one of the most high-profile demises in the history of the PC industry...
'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
DirectX
Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with Direct, such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay,...
accelerator in the 1999 Rage 128
ATI Rage
The ATI Rage is a series of graphics chipsets offering GUI 2D acceleration, video acceleration, and 3D acceleration. It is the successor to the Mach series of 2D accelerators.-3D RAGE :...
.
The All-in-Wonder
All-in-Wonder
The All-in-Wonder was a combination graphics card/TV tuner card designed by ATI Technologies. It was introduced on November 11, 1996. ATI had previously used the Wonder trademark on other graphics cards, however, they were not full TV/graphics combo cards...
product line introduced in 1996 was the first combination of integrated graphics chip with TV tuner card
TV tuner card
A TV tuner card is a kind of television tuner that allows television signals to be received by a computer. Most TV tuners also function as video capture cards, allowing them to record television programs onto a hard disk much like the Tivo digital video recorder does.-Variants: The interfaces for...
and the first chip that enabled to display computer graphics on a TV set . The cards featured 3D acceleration powered by ATI's 3D Rage II, 64-bit 2D performance, TV-quality video acceleration, analog video capture, TV tuner functionality, flicker-free TV-out and stereo TV audio reception.
ATI made an entrance into the mobile computing sector by introducing 3D-graphics acceleration to laptops in 1996. The Mobility product line had to meet requirements different from desktop PC, such as minimized power usage, reduced heat output, TMDS
Transition Minimized Differential Signaling
Transition-minimized differential signaling is a technology for transmitting high-speed serial data and is used by the DVI and HDMI video interfaces, as well as other digital communication interfaces....
output capabilities for laptop screens, and maximized integration. In 1997, ATI acquired Tseng Labs
Tseng Labs
Tseng Laboratories, Inc. was a maker of graphics chips and controllers for IBM PC compatibles, based in Newtown, Pennsylvania, and founded by Jack H-N Tseng....
's graphics assets, which included 40 engineers.
The Radeon
Radeon
Radeon is a brand of graphics processing units and random access memory produced by Advanced Micro Devices , first launched in 2000 by ATI Technologies, which was acquired by AMD in 2006. Radeon is the successor to the Rage line. There are four different groups, which can be differentiated by...
line of graphics products was unveiled in 2000. The initial Radeon graphics processing unit
Graphics processing unit
A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display...
was 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
ArtX
ArtX was a company formed in 1997 by a group of engineers from Silicon Graphics, Inc. who had worked on the Nintendo 64's graphics chip. The company was focused on delivering a PC graphics chip that was both high performance and cost effective, and hoped to be able to instantly compete with...
, which engineered the Flipper graphics chip used in the Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
game console. They have also created a modified version of the chip (codenamed Hollywood
Hollywood (graphics chip)
Hollywood is the name of the graphics processing unit used in Nintendo's Wii video game console. It was designed by AMD's graphics product division and is manufactured using the same 90 nm CMOS process as the "Broadway" processor. Very few official details have been released to the public by...
) for the successor of the GameCube, the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
. ATI was contracted by Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
to create the graphics core (codenamed Xenos) for the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
. Later in 2005, ATI acquired Terayon's cable modem silicon intellectual property
Silicon intellectual property
Silicon Intellectual Property is a business model for a semiconductor company where the company licenses its technology to a customer as intellectual property. This is a type of fabless semiconductor company which doesn't provide physical chips to its customers but merely facilitates the...
strengthening their lead in the consumer digital television market . K. Y. Ho remained as Chairman of the Board until he retired in November 2005. Dave Orton
David E. Orton
David E. Orton is the former CEO of ATI Technologies.Orton joined ATI as a result of an acquisition of ArtX, a high-tech SME, in April 2000, where he was President and CEO. Prior to ArtX he worked at Silicon Graphics where he spent almost ten years as Senior Vice President of the Visual Computing...
replaced him as the President and CEO of the organization.
On July 24, 2006, a joint announcement was made that ATI would be acquired
Mergers and acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions refers to the aspect of corporate strategy, corporate finance and management dealing with the buying, selling, dividing and combining of different companies and similar entities that can help an enterprise grow rapidly in its sector or location of origin, or a new field or...
by Advanced Micro Devices
Advanced Micro Devices
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. or AMD is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Sunnyvale, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for commercial and consumer markets...
in a deal valued at $5.6 billion . The acquisition consideration closed on October 25, 2006, and included over $2 billion financed from a loan and 56 million shares of AMD stock . ATI's operations were folded into AMD Graphics Product Group (GPG), and ATI's CEO Dave Orton became the Executive Vice President of Visual and Media Businesses at AMD until his resignation in 2007 . 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 . On 30 August 2010, it was announced that AMD was retiring the ATI brand for its graphics chipsets in favor of the AMD name .
Products
Graphics processing unit
A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display...
s (originally called a VPU, visual processing unit, by ATI) for PCs and Apple Macs, ATI also designed embedded versions for laptops (Mobility Radeon), PDA
Personal digital assistant
A personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...
s and mobile phones (Imageon
Imageon
The Imageon is a line of media processors developed by ATI providing graphics acceleration and other multimedia features for handheld devices such as mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants ....
), 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 . 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
Consumer Electronics Show
The International Consumer Electronics Show is a major technology-related trade show held each January in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Not open to the public, the Consumer Electronics Association-sponsored show typically hosts previews of products and new...
.
Computer graphics chipsets
- Graphics Solution / "Small Wonder"ATI Wonder seriesThe ATi Wonder series represents some of the first graphics add on products for IBM PCs and compatibles introduced by ATi Technologies in the mid to late 1980s. These cards were unique at the time as they offered the end user a considerable amount of value by combining support for multiple graphics...
– Series of 8-bit ISAIndustry Standard ArchitectureIndustry Standard Architecture is a computer bus standard for IBM PC compatible computers introduced with the IBM Personal Computer to support its Intel 8088 microprocessor's 8-bit external data bus and extended to 16 bits for the IBM Personal Computer/AT's Intel 80286 processor...
cards with MDAMonochrome Display AdapterThe Monochrome Display Adapter introduced in 1981 was IBM's standard video display card and computer display standard for the PC. The MDA did not have any pixel-addressable graphics modes...
, HerculesHercules Graphics CardThe Hercules Graphics Card was a computer graphics controller made by Hercules Computer Technology, Inc. which, through its popularity, became a widely supported display standard. It was common on IBM PC compatibles connected to a monochrome monitor . It supported one high resolution text mode and...
, CGAColor Graphics AdapterThe Color Graphics Adapter , originally also called the Color/Graphics Adapter or IBM Color/Graphics Monitor Adapter, introduced in 1981, was IBM's first color graphics card, and the first color computer display standard for the IBM PC....
and Plantronics Color+Plantronics ColorplusThe Plantronics Colorplus was a graphics card for IBM PC computers, first sold in 1982. It was a superset of the then-current CGA standard, using the same monitor standard and providing the same pixel resolutions....
compatibility. Later versions added EGAEnhanced Graphics AdapterThe Enhanced Graphics Adapter is the IBM PC computer display standard specification which is between CGA and VGA in terms of color and space resolution. Introduced in October 1984 by IBM shortly after its new PC/AT, EGA produces a display of 16 simultaneous colors from a palette of 64 at a...
support. - EGA / VGA WonderATI Wonder seriesThe ATi Wonder series represents some of the first graphics add on products for IBM PCs and compatibles introduced by ATi Technologies in the mid to late 1980s. These cards were unique at the time as they offered the end user a considerable amount of value by combining support for multiple graphics...
– IBMIBMInternational Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
"EGAEnhanced Graphics AdapterThe Enhanced Graphics Adapter is the IBM PC computer display standard specification which is between CGA and VGA in terms of color and space resolution. Introduced in October 1984 by IBM shortly after its new PC/AT, EGA produces a display of 16 simultaneous colors from a palette of 64 at a...
/VGAVideo Graphics ArrayVideo Graphics Array refers specifically to the display hardware first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, but through its widespread adoption has also come to mean either an analog computer display standard, the 15-pin D-subminiature VGA connector or the 640×480 resolution...
-compatible" display adapters (1987) - MachATI MachThe ATi Mach line was a series of 2D graphics accelerators for personal computers developed by ATI Technologies. It became an extension to the ATI Wonder series of cards. The first chip in the series was the ATi Mach8. It was essentially a clone of the IBM 8514/A with a few notable extensions such...
Series – Introduced ATI's first 2D2D computer graphics2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models and by techniques specific to them...
GUIGraphical user interfaceIn computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
"Windows Accelerator". As the series evolved, GUI acceleration improved dramatically and early video acceleration appeared. - RageATI RageThe ATI Rage is a series of graphics chipsets offering GUI 2D acceleration, video acceleration, and 3D acceleration. It is the successor to the Mach series of 2D accelerators.-3D RAGE :...
Series – ATI's first 2D and 3D accelerator chips. The series evolved from rudimentary 3D with 2D GUI acceleration and MPEG-1MPEG-1MPEG-1 is a standard for lossy compression of video and audio. It is designed to compress VHS-quality raw digital video and CD audio down to 1.5 Mbit/s without excessive quality loss, making video CDs, digital cable/satellite TV and digital audio broadcasting possible.Today, MPEG-1 has become...
capability, to a highly competitive Direct3DDirect3DDirect3D is part of Microsoft's DirectX application programming interface . Direct3D is available for Microsoft Windows operating systems , and for other platforms through the open source software Wine. It is the base for the graphics API on the Xbox and Xbox 360 console systems...
6 accelerator with then "best-in-class" DVD (MPEG2) acceleration. The various chips were very popular with OEMOriginal Equipment ManufacturerAn original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, manufactures products or components that are purchased by a company and retailed under that purchasing company's brand name. OEM refers to the company that originally manufactured the product. When referring to automotive parts, OEM designates a...
s of the time. The Rage II was used in the first ATI All-In-WonderAll-in-WonderThe All-in-Wonder was a combination graphics card/TV tuner card designed by ATI Technologies. It was introduced on November 11, 1996. ATI had previously used the Wonder trademark on other graphics cards, however, they were not full TV/graphics combo cards...
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 managementPower managementPower management is a feature of some electrical appliances, especially copiers, computers and computer peripherals such as monitors and printers, that turns off the power or switches the system to a low-power state when inactive. In computing this is known as PC power management and is built...
, LCDLiquid crystal displayA liquid crystal display is a flat panel display, electronic visual display, or video display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals . LCs do not emit light directly....
interfaces, and dual monitorMulti monitorMulti-Monitor, also called Multi-Display and Multi-Head, is the use of multiple physical display devices, such as monitors, televisions, and projectors, in order to increase the area available for computer programs running on a single computer system...
functionality.
- 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
- RadeonRadeonRadeon is a brand of graphics processing units and random access memory produced by Advanced Micro Devices , first launched in 2000 by ATI Technologies, which was acquired by AMD in 2006. Radeon is the successor to the Rage line. There are four different groups, which can be differentiated by...
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 GeForceGeForceGeForce is a brand of graphics processing units designed by Nvidia. , there have been eleven iterations of the design. The first GeForce products were discrete GPUs designed for use on add-on graphics boards, intended for the high-margin PC gaming market...
. 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 RadeonRadeonRadeon is a brand of graphics processing units and random access memory produced by Advanced Micro Devices , first launched in 2000 by ATI Technologies, which was acquired by AMD in 2006. Radeon is the successor to the Rage line. There are four different groups, which can be differentiated by...
– 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 "PowerPlayATI PowerPlayATI PowerPlay is a collective name for a set of technologies implemented in a series of graphics adapters manufactured by ATI, including the Mobility Radeon, the Imageon handheld chipset, and the Radeon family of desktop GPUs...
" power management technology. AMD recently announced DirectX 11-compatible versions of its mobile processors .. - ATI CrossFireATI CrossFireAMD CrossFireX is a brand name for the multi-GPU solution by Advanced Micro Devices, originally developed by ATI Technologies. The technology allows up to four GPUs to be used in a single computer to improve graphics performance.-First-generation:CrossFire was first made available to the public...
– This technology was ATI's response to NVIDIANVIDIANvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
's SLIScalable Link InterfaceScalable Link Interface is a brand name for a multi-GPU solution developed by NVIDIA for linking two or more video cards together to produce a single output...
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 .
- Mobility Radeon
- FireGL – Launched in 2001, following ATI's acquisition of FireGL Graphics from Diamond MultimediaDiamond MultimediaDiamond Multimedia is a company that specializes in many forms of multimedia technology. They have produced graphics cards, motherboards, modems, sound cards and MP3 players, however the company began with the production of the TrackStar, a PC add-on card which emulated Apple II computers...
. Workstation CAD/CAM video card, based on the Radeon series. - FireMVFireMVThe FireMV graphics card is marketed as a Multi-Display 2D video card, with 3D capabilities same as the low-end Radeon graphics products. It competes directly with Matrox professional video cards. FireMV cards aims at the corporate environment who require several displays attached to a single...
– For workstations, featuring "multi-view", for multiple displays with 2D acceleration only, usually based on low-end products of the Radeon series.
Personal computer platforms and chipsets
- IGP 3x0Radeon R100The Radeon R100 is the first generation of Radeon graphics chips from ATI Technologies. The line features 3D acceleration based upon Direct3D 7.0 and OpenGL 1.3, and all but the entry-level versions offloading host geometry calculations to a hardware transform and lighting engine, a major...
, Mobility Radeon 7000 IGPRadeon R100The Radeon R100 is the first generation of Radeon graphics chips from ATI Technologies. The line features 3D acceleration based upon Direct3D 7.0 and OpenGL 1.3, and all but the entry-level versions offloading host geometry calculations to a hardware transform and lighting engine, a major...
– ATI's first chipsets. Included a DirectX 7-level 3D graphics processor. - 9100 IGPRadeon R200The Radeon R200 is the second generation of Radeon graphics chips from ATI Technologies. The architecture features 3D acceleration based upon Microsoft Direct3D 8.1 and OpenGL 1.3, a major improvement in features and performance compared to the preceding Radeon R100 design. The GPU also includes 2D...
– 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 - Xpress 200/200PXpress 200The Radeon Xpress 200 is a computer chipset released by ATI. The chipset supports AMD 64-bit processors as well as supporting Intel Pentium 4, Pentium D and Celeron processors...
– PCI ExpressPCI ExpressPCI Express , officially abbreviated as PCIe, is a computer expansion card standard designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X, and AGP bus standards...
-based Athlon 64Athlon 64The Athlon 64 is an eighth-generation, AMD64-architecture microprocessor produced by AMD, released on September 23, 2003. It is the third processor to bear the name Athlon, and the immediate successor to the Athlon XP...
and Pentium 4Pentium 4Pentium 4 was a line of single-core desktop and laptop central processing units , introduced by Intel on November 20, 2000 and shipped through August 8, 2008. They had a 7th-generation x86 microarchitecture, called NetBurst, which was the company's first all-new design since the introduction of the...
chipset. Supports SATASataSata is a traditional dish from the Malaysian state of Terengganu, consisting of spiced fish meat wrapped in banana leaves and cooked on a grill.It is a type of Malaysian fish cake, or otak-otak...
as well as integrated graphics with DirectXDirectXMicrosoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with Direct, such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay,...
9.0 support, the first integrated graphics chipset to do so - Xpress 3200Xpress 3200The Xpress 3200 is a new revision of the Xpress 200 computer chipset released by ATI. The chipset supports AMD64 processors of the Socket 939 and also of the Socket AM2.-History of the Xpress 3200 chipset:...
– similar to Xpress 200Xpress 200The Radeon Xpress 200 is a computer chipset released by ATI. The chipset supports AMD 64-bit processors as well as supporting Intel Pentium 4, Pentium D and Celeron processors...
, but designed for optimal CrossFireATI CrossFireAMD CrossFireX is a brand name for the multi-GPU solution by Advanced Micro Devices, originally developed by ATI Technologies. The technology allows up to four GPUs to be used in a single computer to improve graphics performance.-First-generation:CrossFire was first made available to the public...
performance.- AMD 580X CrossFire chipset – AMD edition of Xpress 3200 renamed, due to AMD acquisition of ATI.
In addition to the above chipset, ATI struck a deal in 2005 with CPU and motherboard
Motherboard
In personal computers, a motherboard is the central printed circuit board in many modern computers and holds many of the crucial components of the system, providing connectors for other peripherals. The motherboard is sometimes alternatively known as the mainboard, system board, or, on Apple...
manufacturers, particularly Asus
ASUS
ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated is a multinational computer technology and consumer electronics product manufacturer headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. Its product range includes motherboards, desktops, laptops, monitors, tablet PCs, servers and mobile phones...
and Intel, to create onboard 3D Graphics solutions for Intel's range of motherboards released with their range of Intel Pentium M
Pentium M
The Pentium M brand refers to a family of mobile single-core x86 microprocessors introduced in March 2003 , and forming a part of the Intel Carmel notebook platform under the then new Centrino brand...
-based desktop processors, the Intel Core
Intel Core
Yonah was the code name for Intel's first generation of 65 nm process mobile microprocessors, based on the Banias/Dothan-core Pentium M microarchitecture. SIMD performance has been improved through the addition of SSE3 instructions and improvements to SSE and SSE2 implementations, while integer...
and Intel Core 2
Intel Core 2
Core 2 is a brand encompassing a range of Intel's consumer 64-bit x86-64 single-, dual-, and quad-core microprocessors based on the Core microarchitecture. The single- and dual-core models are single-die, whereas the quad-core models comprise two dies, each containing two cores, packaged in a...
processors, the D101GGC and D101GGC2 chipset (codenamed "Grand County") based on the Radeon Xpress 200
Xpress 200
The Radeon Xpress 200 is a computer chipset released by ATI. The chipset supports AMD 64-bit processors as well as supporting Intel Pentium 4, Pentium D and Celeron processors...
chipset. However, high-end boards with integrated graphics processor (IGP) still used Intel GMA
Intel GMA
The Intel Graphics Media Accelerator, or GMA, is a series of Intel integrated graphics processors built into various motherboard chipsets....
integrated graphics processor
Graphics processing unit
A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display...
s. The deal with Intel ended with the purchase of ATI by AMD in 2006, with Intel announcing SiS
Silicon Integrated Systems
Silicon Integrated Systems is a company that manufactures, among other things, motherboard chipsets. The company was founded in 1987 in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan.-Business:...
IGP chipset (D201GLY chipset, codenamed "Little Valley") for entry-level desktop platform, replacing the "Grand County" series chipsets.
Multimedia and Digital TV products
- All-In-WonderAll-in-WonderThe All-in-Wonder was a combination graphics card/TV tuner card designed by ATI Technologies. It was introduced on November 11, 1996. ATI had previously used the Wonder trademark on other graphics cards, however, they were not full TV/graphics combo cards...
series – A series of multimedia graphics cards which incorporating TV tuner and RadeonRadeonRadeon is a brand of graphics processing units and random access memory produced by Advanced Micro Devices , first launched in 2000 by ATI Technologies, which was acquired by AMD in 2006. Radeon is the successor to the Rage line. There are four different groups, which can be differentiated by...
family graphics cardVideo cardA video card, Graphics Card, or Graphics adapter is an expansion card which generates output images to a display. Most video cards offer various functions such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or the ability to connect multiple monitors...
s onto one add-in card, 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 analog TV and digital TV signals (PALPALPAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
, NTSCNTSCNTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
, ATSCATSCATSC standards are a set of standards developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee for digital television transmission over terrestrial, cable, and satellite networks....
, DVB-TDVB-TDVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998...
and so on) with first generation AVIVOAVIVOATI Avivo is a set of hardware and low level software features present on the ATI Radeon R520 family of GPUs and all later ATI Radeon products. ATI Avivo was designed to offload video decoding, encoding, and post-processing from a computer's CPU to a compatible GPU...
technology, also supporting CableCARDCableCARDCableCARD is a special-use PCMCIA card that allows consumers in the United States to view and record digital cable television channels on digital video recorders, personal computers and television sets without the use of other equipment such as a set top box provided by a cable television company...
, and Clear QAMQAM tunerQAM stands for quadrature amplitude modulation, the format by which digital cable channels are encoded and transmitted via cable television providers...
technologies. - Theater – a family of QAM and VSBSingle-sideband modulationSingle-sideband modulation or Single-sideband suppressed-carrier is a refinement of amplitude modulation that more efficiently uses electrical power and bandwidth....
demodulators for the Digital Cable ready and ATSC environments.
- TV Wonder and HDTV Wonder – a chipset family providing TV reception of various analog TV and digital TV signals (PAL
- Remote Wonder, wireless remote control series for ATI multimedia products. Operates using radio frequency, away from mainstream implementations using infrared.
Console graphics products
- Flipper – The Nintendo GameCubeNintendo GameCubeThe , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
(codenamed "dolphin" during production) contains a 3D accelerator developed by ArtX, Inc, a company acquired by ATI during the development of the GPU. Flipper was similar in capability to a Direct3DDirect3DDirect3D is part of Microsoft's DirectX application programming interface . Direct3D is available for Microsoft Windows operating systems , and for other platforms through the open source software Wine. It is the base for the graphics API on the Xbox and Xbox 360 console systems...
7 accelerator chip. It consisted of four rendering pipelines, with hardware T&L, and some limited pixel shader support. Innovatively the chip has 3 MiBMIBMIB may refer to any of several concepts:* Master of International Business, a postgraduate business degree* Melayu Islam Beraja, the adopted national philosophy of Brunei* Motion induced blindness, a visual illusion in peripheral vision...
of embedded 1T-SRAM1T-SRAM1T-SRAM is a pseudostatic random-access memory technology introduced by MoSys, Inc., which offers a high-density alternative to traditional static random access memory in embedded memory applications...
for use as ultra-fast low-latency (6.2 nsNanosecondA nanosecond is one billionth of a second . One nanosecond is to one second as one second is to 31.7 years.The word nanosecond is formed by the prefix nano and the unit second. Its symbol is ns....
) texture and framebufferFramebufferA framebuffer is a video output device that drives a video display from a memory buffer containing a complete frame of data.The information in the memory buffer typically consists of color values for every pixel on the screen...
/Z-buffer storage allowing 10.4 GB/second bandwidth (extremely fast for the time). Flipper was designed by members of the Nintendo 64Nintendo 64The , often referred to as N64, was Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil...
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 – MicrosoftMicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
's Xbox 360Xbox 360The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
video game console contains a custom graphics chip produced by ATI, known as "R500", "C1", or more often as Xenos. Some of these features include the embedded DRAM (eDRAMEDRAMeDRAM stands for "embedded DRAM", a capacitor-based dynamic random access memory integrated on the same die as an ASIC or processor. The cost-per-bit is higher than for stand-alone DRAM chips but in many applications the performance advantages of placing the eDRAM on the same chip as the processor...
). 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. This differs greatly from past-generations PC graphics chips 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, similar to TruFormTruformTruForm was an early tessellation implementation created by ATI and employed in DirectX 8 and OpenGL graphics cards, on both Mac and Windows. The technology was first employed on the Radeon 8500 in 2001...
in terms of functionality, which is an advanced feature as it is not presented even in the most up-to-date DirectX 10 specification. The recent generation Radeon R600Radeon R600The graphics processing unit codenamed the Radeon R600 is the foundation of the Radeon HD 2000/3000 series and the FireGL 2007 series video cards developed by ATI Technologies...
GPU core inherited most of the features presented in Xenos, except eDRAMEDRAMeDRAM stands for "embedded DRAM", a capacitor-based dynamic random access memory integrated on the same die as an ASIC or processor. The cost-per-bit is higher than for stand-alone DRAM chips but in many applications the performance advantages of placing the eDRAM on the same chip as the processor...
. - HollywoodHollywood (graphics chip)Hollywood is the name of the graphics processing unit used in Nintendo's Wii video game console. It was designed by AMD's graphics product division and is manufactured using the same 90 nm CMOS process as the "Broadway" processor. Very few official details have been released to the public by...
– Successor to Flipper. Part of NintendoNintendois a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
's latest gaming console, WiiWiiThe Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
.
Handheld chipsets
- ImageonImageonThe Imageon is a line of media processors developed by ATI providing graphics acceleration and other multimedia features for handheld devices such as mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants ....
– System-on-a-chipSystem-on-a-chipA system on a chip or system on chip is an integrated circuit that integrates all components of a computer or other electronic system into a single chip. It may contain digital, analog, mixed-signal, and often radio-frequency functions—all on a single chip substrate...
(SoC) design introduced in 2002 to bring integrated 2D2D computer graphics2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models and by techniques specific to them...
and 3D3D computer graphics3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
graphics to handhelds devices, cellphones and Tablet PCTablet computerA tablet computer, or simply tablet, is a complete mobile computer, larger than a mobile phone or personal digital assistant, integrated into a flat touch screen and primarily operated by touching the screen...
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 OpenGLOpenGLOpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...
ES 1.1+ extensions. The Imageon line was rebranded under AMD, after AMD acquired ATI in Q3 2006, as AMD Imageon. - Imageon TVImageonThe Imageon is a line of media processors developed by ATI providing graphics acceleration and other multimedia features for handheld devices such as mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants ....
– Announced in February 2006, allowing handhelds devices to receive digital broadcast TV (DVB-HDVB-HDVB-H is one of three prevalent mobile TV formats. It is a technical specification for bringing broadcast services to mobile handsets. DVB-H was formally adopted as ETSI standard EN 302 304 in November 2004. The DVB-H specification can be downloaded from the official DVB-H website...
) signals and enables watching TV programs on these devices, the chipset includes tuner, demodulator, decoder, and a full software stack, operates alongside the ImageonImageonThe Imageon is a line of media processors developed by ATI providing graphics acceleration and other multimedia features for handheld devices such as mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants ....
chip.
Besides full products, ATI also supplied 3D and 2D graphics components to other vendors, specifically the Qualcomm
Qualcomm
Qualcomm is an American global telecommunication corporation that designs, manufactures and markets digital wireless telecommunications products and services based on its code division multiple access technology and other technologies. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, USA...
MSM7000
MSM7000
MSM7000 is a series system-on-a-chip manufactured by Qualcomm for handheld devices, especially smartphones.These SOCs have multiple processing cores but unlike the contemporary processor chips MSM7000 is a series system-on-a-chip manufactured by Qualcomm for handheld devices, especially...
series SoC chips of handheld and upcoming Freescale i. MX processors ATI claimed in May 2006, that it had sold over 100 million '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 . In late 2008, the entire handheld division was sold off to Qualcomm
Qualcomm
Qualcomm is an American global telecommunication corporation that designs, manufactures and markets digital wireless telecommunications products and services based on its code division multiple access technology and other technologies. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, USA...
, so there will be no new Imageon products.
High-performance computing
- ATI Firestream, using the stream processingStream processingStream processing is a computer programming paradigm, related to SIMD , that allows some applications to more easily exploit a limited form of parallel processing...
concept, together with Close to MetalClose to MetalClose To Metal is the name of a beta version of a low-level programming interface developed by ATI , aimed at enabling GPGPU computing...
(CTM) hardware interface. After the AMD acquisition, it was succeeded by AMD FireStreamAMD FireStreamThe AMD FireStream is a stream processor produced by Advanced Micro Devices to utilize the stream processing/GPGPU concept for heavy floating-point computations to target various industries, such as the High Performance Computing , scientific, and financial sectors...
, rebranded as AMD Stream Processor for a short period of time,
Proprietary
ATI Catalyst (now AMD Catalyst) provided proprietary graphics driversDevice driver
In computing, a device driver or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a hardware device....
and assisted development of open-source drivers, and available for most platforms: Windows XP
Windows XP
Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
, Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
Windows 7, Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, and Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
. Linux users can also opt to use open-source drivers.
Free
Hardware component companies which only provide proprietary drivers have always been urged by the open-source community to make their drivers free softwareFree software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
, or at least provide the necessary documentation for the community to write their own drivers. In a 2002 interview with AMD official Hal Speed, it was suggested that AMD were strongly considering making the functional part of the ATI drivers "open source" However, until the merger with AMD, ATI had no plans to release their graphics drivers as free software:
.
Since 2007 ATI has partly cooperated with the development of a free graphics drivers, but have not made their Catalyst drivers free. The programming specifications for a number of chipsets and features were published in several rounds. This greatly changed their support of the development of free graphics drivers, as until that moment only unsupported free drivers existed. Besides releasing the specifications, ATI also funded the development of new "open source" drivers, and has even hired some employees to actively work on free software drivers..
See also
- Comparison of ATI chipsetsComparison of ATI chipsets-Comparison of Northbridges:Note 1: A-Link Express and A-Link Express II is essentially PCI-Express x4 lanes, so that any PCI Express capable southbridge can be used ....
- Comparison of ATI graphics processing unitsComparison of ATI Graphics Processing UnitsThis page contains general information about the GPUs and video cards by Advanced Micro Devices , including those by ATI Technologies before 2006, based on official specifications in table form.-DirectX version note:...
- Fglrx – Linux display driver used for ATI video cards
- RadeonRadeonRadeon is a brand of graphics processing units and random access memory produced by Advanced Micro Devices , first launched in 2000 by ATI Technologies, which was acquired by AMD in 2006. Radeon is the successor to the Rage line. There are four different groups, which can be differentiated by...
- Radeon R800Radeon R800The Evergreen series is a family of GPUs developed by Advanced Micro Devices for its Radeon line under the ATI brand name.-Release:The existence was spotted on a presentation slide from AMD Technology Analyst Day July 2007 as "R8xx"...
- Video cardVideo cardA video card, Graphics Card, or Graphics adapter is an expansion card which generates output images to a display. Most video cards offer various functions such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or the ability to connect multiple monitors...
- Video-in video-out (VIVO)Video In Video OutVideo In Video Out, usually seen as the acronym VIVO , is a graphics port which enables some video cards to have bidirectional analog video transfer through a mini-DIN connector, usually of the 9-pin variety, and a specialised splitter cable .VIVO is found on high-end ATI and NVIDIA...