Out in Front: May 9, 1996
3-D accelerator includes 2-D, MPEG
The 3D RAGE 3-D graphics accelerator from ATI Technologies is pin-compatible with and includes all the capabilities of the company's mach64 2-D graphics accelerator. It also incorporates full-motion MPEG video playback and a host of 3-D-graphics-acceleration capabilities. The device handles perspective-corrected texture mapping, texture filtering and lighting, source and destination alphablending, and both flat and Gouraud shading. The $48 (10,000) chip has now entered mass production, and IBM has incorporated it into new models of the Aptiva brand of PCs.
ATI Technologies backs its accelerator with substantial technical and marketing support. Application developers can receive a software developer's kit, discounts on hardware and development tools, priority access to telephone technical support, and access to a developer's Web page. In addition to technical support, the company offers C code and reference documentation for developing code to meet the major 3-D graphics application-programming interfaces (APIs). The APIs that ATI Technologies supports include Apple Computer's QuickDraw 3D; ATI's own interface, 3D CIF; Intel's 3DR, Renderware; and Microsoft's Di-rect3D.
—by Richard A Quinnell
ATI Technologies, Thornhill, ON, Canada. (905) 882-2600.
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