ATI's Latest Innovations Reveal Its Commitment to Leading the Industry by Adopting Microsoft DirectX 9.0 and HLSL.

Business Editors/Technology Writers

MARKHAM, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 20, 2002

ATI Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq:ATYT) (TSX:ATY) is leading the industry's adoption of Microsoft(R) DirectX(R) 9.0 and Microsoft High Level Shader Language (HLSL) with special programs for the Independent Software Vendor (ISV) community and its RADEON(TM) 9700 and RADEON(TM) 9500 series boards. ISVs are quickly adopting Microsoft(R) DirectX(R) 9.0 for their new game titles, and are now focusing time and resources on programming and creating powerful custom shaders for this new platform.

ATI released the RADEON(TM) Software Developer's Kit, featuring comprehensive supporting documentation for Microsoft(R) DirectX(R) 9.0 and HLSL, as well as technology sample applications allowing ISVs to embrace their creative vision. By including sample applications with the source code, ATI is ensuring the easy adoption of Microsoft(R) DirectX(R) 9.0.

"ATI is committed to supporting industry platforms and languages, like Microsoft(R) DirectX(R) 9.0 and HLSL, that enhance the effectiveness and success of the worldwide developer community," said Rick Bergman, Senior Vice President, Marketing and General Manager, Desktop, ATI Technologies Inc. "ATI is demonstrating its leadership by being the first and only graphics vendor with Microsoft(R) DirectX(R) 9.0 compatible hardware on the market today."

"By supporting Microsoft(R) DirectX(R) 9.0 and HLSL, ATI demonstrates its far-reaching vision for the graphics industry," said Dean Lester, general manager of Graphics and Gaming Technologies, Microsoft Corporation. "ISVs can now combine ATI's compelling technology with Microsoft(R) DirectX(R) 9.0 and HLSL to create Windows games that contain the most innovative and immersive depth of content available to date."

"We're very excited about developing our graphic-rich environments using Microsoft(R) DirectX(R) 9.0 hardware like the RADEON 9700," said John Talley, Director of Technology, Ion Storm. "The information and support that we've received from ATI has helped us to continue developing leading edge graphics features for our titles."

"HLSL in conjunction with the new generation of ATI cards allow us to push the envelope of what we can achieve in our games graphically," said Michael Heileman, VP of Technology, Fox Interactive. "HLSL lets us rapidly prototype effects and be much more productive, while the RADEON 9700 gives us the power to take our visual effects one step closer to film quality."

"Freeing developers from the pains of writing in assembly is a good thing," said Gary McTaggart, Engineer, Valve. "HLSL allows us to write equivalent shader code, with equally high performance, in a fraction of the time."

"The open standard of Microsoft's High Level Shader Language participates in the democratization of PC computer graphics design and sets a new standard for shaders programming," said Julien Merceron, Worldwide Technical Director, Ubi Soft Entertainment. "With ATI supporting HLSL, our game developers can concentrate on programming the best possible effects on the RADEON 9500 (and above) while assuring compatibility with all graphics hardware."

"It's great to see a card like the RADEON 9700 with HLSL and Microsoft(R) DirectX(R) 9.0 support as early as we have. It's one of those new great toys you can't stop playing with," said Todd Howard, Executive Producer, Bethesda Softworks.

"Using HLSL to write vertex and pixel shaders makes it significantly easier to develop stunning new visual effects for games," said Jeff Grills, Technical Director, Austin Studio, Sony Online Entertainment.

ATI's RADEON 9700 and RADEON 9500 series boards - with Microsoft(R) DirectX(R) 9.0 support - offer incredible power and performance to the high-end and performance mainstream segments of the graphics market.

The RADEON 9700 series deliver the ultimate PC graphics with a revolutionary architecture focusing on performance, precision and programmability. Eight parallel rendering pipelines provide the brute force to process over 2.5 billion pixels per second while the 256-bit memory interface provides over 20GB/second of graphics memory bandwidth.

ATI's RADEON 9500 series boards are the only products on the market that allow performance mainstream users to access high-end Microsoft(R) DirectX(R) 9.0 features - giving them a high-end gaming experience at a more affordable price-point. ATI's RADEON(TM) 9500 PRO sets a new standard for the performance mainstream with Microsoft(R) DirectX(R) 9.0 support, eight rendering pipelines and 128MB fast DDR memory. The RADEON 9500, available exclusively through add-in-board partners, offers many of the same features with four rendering pipelines and 64MB fast DDR memory.

For more information on ATI's developer relations activities including the RADEON Software Developer's Kit, please visit www.ati.com/developer. For more information about ATI's award-winning graphics products, please visit www.ati.com or our partners' web sites.

About the Company

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).

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.