Con un comunicato stampa, ATi Technologies annuncia l'introduzione nel mercato di due nuove schede video rivolte al settore professionale. Si tratta dell'ATI Fire GL X1-128MB (GPU FGL9700) e dell'ATi Fire GL Z1 (GPU FGL9500), entrambi caratterizzati da supporto alle librerie OpenGL 2.0, DirectX 9.0 e allo standard di collegamento AGP 8X.
Qui sotto vi riportiamo il comunicato stampa:

2MARKHAM, Ontario - ATI Technologies Inc. (TSX:ATY, NASDAQ:ATYT) today announced that the FIRE GL X1-128MB workstation graphics board, and the brand new FIRE GL Z1, are now shipping and available in retail distribution channels. The FIRE GL X1- 128MB and Z1 are the first in the world to deliver a fully programmable floating point architecture which supports OpenGL® 2.0, Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 and AGP 8X.

Both the FIRE GL X1-128MB, based on the revolutionary FGL; 9700 visual processing unit (VPU), and the FIRE GL Z1, harnessing the FGL; 9500 VPU, provide the raw power demanded by CAD (computer-aided design) and DCC (digital content creation) applications. The boards' support of AGP 8X offers a two-way high-speed interface between the graphics subsystem and the workstation at a speed of 2.0 GB per second, providing twice the data throughput and delivering quicker response and shorter development time for users.

"With the FIRE GL X1-128MB and the FIRE GL Z1, users can now harness unprecedented graphics power that offers the maximum amount of bandwidth and performance for the most intensive 3D graphics applications," said Rick Bergman, Vice-President of Marketing and General Manager, Desktop, ATI Technologies Inc. "ATI is ushering in a new era of content creation by being the only company on the market to offer users a full line-up of products that offer eight rendering pipelines, and support for OpenGL, AGP 8X and Microsoft DirectX 9.0 for unparalleled cinematic-quality real time graphics."

The FIRE GL X1-128MB is the only workstation board on the market to offer eight parallel rendering pipelines - at twice the rendering power of any competing product - giving digital content creators the ability to preview finished scenes of cinematic quality in real time, saving days of production time.

Both the FIRE GL X1-128MB and the FIRE GL Z1 will come bundled with free Right Hemisphere® software to further accelerate the production pipeline and save time, including a complete version of Deep Visualizer™ and a trial version of Deep Exploration™. Both boards also include a free trial version of Right Hemisphere's Deep Paint 3D® software, an intuitive, easy-to-use tool to paint and texture 3D models interactively in 3D.

The FIRE GL X1-128MB will be available in December 2002 with a suggested retail price of USD$795. The FIRE GL™ Z1 will be available in January 2003 with a suggested retail price of USD$595. For more information on the FIRE GL X1-128MB and FIRE GL Z1, please visit www.ati.com."