ATI Introduces XILLEON 220, the World's Most Highly Integrated System-on-Chip for the Digital Set-Top Box Market.

Business/Technology Editors

MARKHAM, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 17, 2001

ATI's first system-on-chip offers more features and higher

performance than any chip currently available for the digital

set-top box and digital TV markets

ATI Technologies Inc. (TSE:ATY, NASDAQ:ATYT), a world leader in the supply of graphics, video and multimedia solutions, today introduced XILLEON(TM) 220, the fastest(1) and most highly integrated system-on-chip (SOC) for the digital set-top box and digital TV markets.

Unveiled today in San Jose at the Microprocessor Forum (http://www.mdronline.com/mpf/index.html), XILLEON 220 integrates into a single chip all processor, graphics, video, audio, and I/O (input and output) capabilities needed in a set-top box or digital TV. Included are a 300 MHz MIPS(R) CPU (central processing unit), dual-HD (high definition) capable MPEG decoder, audio decoder, display engine, 2D and 3D graphics engine, conditional access, transport demultiplexers, and PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect), USB (universal serial bus), and hard disk drive interfaces. Only tuners, modems, and memory are required to complete the design for many consumer devices.

"XILLEON 220 clearly positions ATI as the technology and performance leader in SOC devices for the consumer electronics market," said Adrian Hartog, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Consumer Products Group, ATI Technologies Inc. "XILLEON 220 breaks barriers in performance, integration, power dissipation, and cost allowing consumer electronics manufacturers to create products that previously they could only dream about."

"Our digital entertainment market research indicates that the total network set-top box market is expected to grow from 47 million units in 2000 to 114 million in 2005," said Joyce Putscher, Director, Cahners In-Stat Group. "We believe solutions such as ATI's well positioned XILLEON chip, that provide flexibility to address multiple platforms and a wide variety of cable, satellite, DSL, and terrestrial applications, will offer superior value to OEMs."

Revolutionary Capabilities

XILLEON 220 introduces many revolutionary technological advancements to the digital TV and set-top box markets, including:

    --  Level of integration - In order to match the capabilities of
        XILLEON 220, traditional solutions might require two to four
        chips for CPU, HD video decode and I/O. XILLEON 220
        accomplishes these tasks on one chip, saving space, power and
        cost;

    --  CPU speed - Most existing set-top boxes are hampered by slow
        CPU speeds of 50 to 100 MHz. With its industry-leading 300 MHz
        CPU that delivers 390 Dhrystone MIPS (millions of instructions
        per second) of performance, XILLEON 220 provides the
        horsepower necessary for next-generation digital devices
        enabling more responsive user interfaces and a wider range of
        Internet-enabled interactive applications;

    --  Personal video recorder support with copy protection - XILLEON
        220 goes beyond existing solutions by providing a unified
        platform for digital time-shifting and watch/record of
        multiple video streams. The integrated hard disk interface
        supports the most secure hardware encryption currently
        available;

    --  Support for two TVs - XILLEON 220 dual display engine allows
        one inexpensive set-top box to control and display video on
        two TVs in two different locations, thus eliminating the
        expense of a second set-top box and greatly reducing
        deployment costs for network operators and consumers;

    --  Worldwide standards support - XILLEON 220 supports virtually
        all of the world's major broadcast, conditional access, and
        video formats, including DVB (digital video broadcasting)
        (worldwide), ATSC (advanced television systems committee)
        (worldwide), DIRECTV(R) (USA), OpenCable(R) (USA), MHP
        (multimedia home platform) (Europe) and BSDigital (broadcast
        satellite digital) (Japan). Support for all these standards
        allows manufacturers to adopt one chip for worldwide markets,
        thus leading to lower software development costs;

    --  Memory interface - With its dual DDR (dual data rate) memory
        channels XILLEON 220 integrates the most advanced memory
        interface currently available in a set-top box chipset. Up to
        3 Gigabytes/second of memory bandwidth is available, three or
        more times the bandwidth of competing solutions. The high
        memory bandwidth enables amazing decode and display of
        multiple video streams in conjunction with graphics, I/O, and
        advanced user applications;

    --  Video and graphics - ATI's XILLEON 220 integrates the most
        advanced video and graphics engine in the industry. XILLEON
        220 is the only SOC capable of decoding multiple
        high-definition or standard-definition video streams and
        blending those streams with 32-bit true-color graphics from
        the integrated 2D/3D graphics engine. The video engine enables
        flicker removal, deinterlacing, line doubling, studio quality
        text, and high quality scaling of multiple video windows for
        picture-in-picture.

"When we started the design of XILLEON 220, we set the objective of developing a chip that would scale across many markets segments with performance and features that would set it apart from the pack - all at a very affordable price point," explained Daniel Eiref, Director of Technology and Marketing, Consumer Products Group, ATI Technologies Inc. "Our customers are telling us that we've delivered on that goal and they are impressed with the level of integration, wide standards support, excellent multimedia capabilities, integrated time-shifting, and winning CPU and memory performance."

Reference Platform

ATI provides the SET-TOP-WONDER(TM) XILLEON(TM) to assist customers in the development and debug of new designs. SET-TOP-WONDER XILLEON is ATI's fourth-generation reference design and is a complete set-top or digital TV solution on one board. To complete the design of many products, simply plug a network interface module (NIM) for the appropriate broadcast format - QAM, QPSK, COFDM, or VSB - into a NIM connector and plug other peripherals into one of the PCI slots.

The board is capable of supporting most embedded operating systems, including Linux, Microsoft Windows(R) CE, and VxWorks. Driver-level software and reference applications are available.

Availability

XILLEON 220 is available in two versions. XILLEON 220S supports standard definition video decode while XILLEON 220H supports both standard-definition and high-definition video. Chip volume production is targeted to begin in Q1 2002.

(1) ATI's XILLEON(TM) 220 operates at 300 MHz clock speed. IBM's STB045xx operates at 252 MHz clock speed.

Company background

Founded in 1985, ATI Technologies Inc. is a world leader in the supply of graphics, video and multimedia solutions for the personal computer and Mac platforms. The pioneer, innovator and market leader in the graphics industry, ATI provides cutting-edge technologies for the PC, workstation, set-top box, game console and other consumer appliances markets. The Company has more than 1,900 employees supporting customers from its headquarters in Markham, Ontario, Canada, as well as from offices in Barbados, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and the United States. ATI common shares trade on NASDAQ (ATYT) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (ATY).

Copyright 2001 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.

For media or industry analyst support, please visit our Web site at http://www.ati.com or contact:

John Swinimer, Public Relations Manager, Consumer Products, ATI Technologies Inc. at [phone], Ext. 8456 or [e-mail]

Pedro Cabezuelo, Counsellor, BenchMark Porter Novelli at [phone] or [e-mail]

John B. Challinor II APR, Director, Public Relations, ATI Technologies Inc., at [phone], Ext. 8815 or [e-mail]

Anne Ferguson, Senior Counsellor, BenchMark Porter Novelli, at [phone] or [e-mail]

For investor relations support, please contact:

Janet Craig, Director, Investor Relations, ATI Technologies Inc., at [phone], Ext. 2631 or [e-mail]