Out in Front: September 12, 1996

ATI has announced another pin-compatible graphics accelerator called the 3D Rage II and a companion chip called the ImpacTV that allows video cards to drive TVs and standard computer monitors. The 3D Rage II features a redesigned version of the company's 2-D, mach64 GUI accelerator and offers 20% better performance than previous versions. Performance improvements on the 3-D side are even greater. The new IC can render more than 26 million perspective-corrected, texture-mapped pixels/sec. The company believes that the 3-D performance makes the new accelerator suitable for high-end CAD applications as well as entertainment applications. In fact, ATI will include Open-GL drivers for the card that are necessary for professional 3-D applications.

The ImpacTV can simultaneously drive a TV and a computer monitor. The TV-output capability targets the convergence of computing and entertainment applications and allows users to play games or watch computer-generated video on the larger TV screen. The ImpacTV costs $15 (10,000), and the 3D Rage II costs $30 (10,000).

—by Maury Wright

ATI Technologies Inc, Thornhill, ON, Canada. (905) 882-2600.