High performance graphics acceleration with reduced system
power dissipation
Thursday, November 14, 2002
MARKHAM, Ontario - ATI Technologies Inc. (TSX: ATY, NASDAQ: ATYT) today introduced
IMAGEON™ 3200, the most advanced multimedia co-processor for handheld electronic
devices such as Personal Data Assistants (PDA) and the new generation of data-enabled
Mobile Phones.
IMAGEON 3200 is a member of ATI's second-generation family of media co-processors
for handheld devices. It integrates an advanced 2D graphics engine and an MPEG/JPEG
decoder alongside a powerful and versatile set of peripheral I/O functions.
The IMAGEON 3200 highly optimized architecture and features offer the highest
graphics performance and frame rates while lowering the overall system power
dissipation. Handheld devices using the IMAGEON 3200 will benefit from a much
longer battery life.
"ATI's IMAGEON 3200 raises the bar once again by taking advantage of new
technologies to deliver amazing graphics quality and battery life for all handheld
devices including the frugal mobile phones," said Azzedine Boubguira, Director
of Marketing, Handheld Products Group, ATI Technologies Inc. "In addition
to completing the architecture of mobile devices and enhancing their performance,
the new IMAGEON 3200 offers more value to OEMs for cost and power saving by
integrating several necessary peripheral I/O functions."
IMAGEON 3200 continues to offer IMAGEON industry-leading functionality designed
to enhance OEM (original equipment manufacturer) products. The following are
just some of the outstanding IMAGEON 3200 features:
- Enhanced 2D Graphics Engine: All basic 2D acceleration functions
are supported to enable fast animation and fast drawing to the screen. IMAGEON
3200 also includes advanced features such as alpha blending, object rotation,
and Gouraud shading to enhance the visual quality and help the creativity
of content developers for the handheld market.
- MPEG and JPEG decoding: The video hardware decode functions free
up more than 50% of MIPS power from the main CPU, resulting in the support
of higher resolutions at higher frame rates with no visual artifacts.
- Integrated Memory: IMAGEON 3200 includes enough embedded SRAM (static
random access memory) to support double buffering of images for higher quality
graphics and video on standard PDA display resolutions (up to 320 x 480 pixels).
- Host Interface: IMAGEON 3200 uses a high-bandwidth, high performance
host- interface to connect seamlessly to all industry-leading embedded microprocessors
such as Intel's XScale, Motorola's MX1, TI's OMAP, and Samsung's S3C2400.
- Display Engine: The main component of the display engine is a programmable
LCD Timing Controller (or TCON). The programmability of this timing generator
gives OEMs the flexibility to interface to a large number of LCD panels using
different technologies from different manufacturers.
- USB On-The-Go (OTG): IMAGEON 3200 is the first integrated co-processor
to offer USB OTG (On-The-Go) - a new standard that connects two USB devices
directly. USB On-The-Go is designed for mobile interconnectivity by allowing
a USB device to communicate with other USB peripherals (such as printers)
without the need to go through a PC.
- Secure Digital (SD) card: Both SD memory cards and SDIO cards (with
functions such as Bluetooth, digital cameras, etc…) are supported with
the fully integrated and standard compliant controller. Multi-media Cards
(MMC) are also supported.
- Video Capture Port: IMAGEON 3200 connects seamlessly to digital cameras
and other video sources through its embedded capture port for images with
resolutions up to VGA. Three input formats are accepted including the ITU-656
standard.
Availability
ATI's IMAGEON 3200 media controller is currently sampling. Mass production shipments
will start by the end of November.
Copyright 2002 ATI Technologies Inc. All rights reserved. ATI and ATI product
and product feature names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of ATI
Technologies Inc. All other company and product names are trademarks and/or
registered trademarks of their respective owners. Features, pricing, availability
and specifications are subject to change without notice.
About ATI Technologies
ATI Technologies Inc. is a world leader in the design and manufacture of innovative
3D graphics and digital media silicon solutions. An industry pioneer since 1985,
ATI is the world's foremost visual processor unit (VPU) provider and is dedicated
to deliver leading-edge performance solutions for the full range of PC and Mac
desktop and notebook platforms, workstation, set-top and digital television,
game console and handheld markets. With 2001 revenues in excess of US $1 billion,
ATI has more than 1,900 employees in the Americas, Europe and Asia. ATI common
shares trade on NASDAQ (ATYT) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (ATY).
Contact Information
For media or industry analyst support, visit our Web site at http://www.ati.com
.
Other ATI Contacts:
Pedro Cabezuelo, Senior Counsellor, BenchMark Porter Novelli at (416) 422-7164,
or pcabezuelo@bmportenovelli.com
John Swinimer, Public Relations Manager, Consumer Products, ATI Technologies
Inc., at (905) 882-2600, Ext. 8456 or swinimer@ati.com
For investor relations support, please contact:
Janet Craig, Director, Investor Relations, ATI Technologies Inc., at (905) 882-2600,
Ext. 2631 or jcraig@ati.com