New TV-on-Chip meets looming DTV requirements deadline

MARKHAM, Ontario – August 17, 2005 – ATI Technologies Inc. (TSX: ATY, NASDAQ: ATYT) today announced the Xilleon 240, a highly integrated TV-on-Chip designed to enable cost effective digital television sets for the North American and Korean markets. Xilleon 240 delivers both industry leading digital signal reception and high quality image processing display functionality required for a complete DTV solution.

The new chip from ATI’s Digital TV Group is the first to integrate all the major components necessary for manufacturers to build digital integrated televisions at lower costs and in advance of the fast approaching DTV requirements.

The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requires that for 50 per cent of all 25-inch to 36-inch TVs include digital tuners by July 1, 2005 and 100 per cent for this same segment by March 1, 2006.

“TV manufacturers have an urgent need for solutions that enable them to cost effectively add DTV reception to their products,” said Daniel Eiref, Director of Marketing, DTV Group, ATI Technologies Inc.

“Xilleon 240 integrates all the key technologies necessary for TV manufacturers to implement a digital LCD, rear projection, or CRT television with reduced cost and no compromise in performance. ATI is driving the DTV market so consumers can enjoy the best digital television has to offer.”

The Xilleon 240 TV-On-Chip includes a powerful MIPS CPU (central processing unit), a Digital Front End capable of demodulating and decoding 8VSB for ATSC terrestrial broadcasts or 64/256 QAM for digital cable (including a Forward Data Channel demodulator for OpenCable applications), a HD/SD capable MPEG video and audio decoder, an NTSC video decoder featuring a 3D comb filter, a video scaler and deinterlacer, and other image processing features.

Xilleon 240 includes advanced deinterlacing technology that reduces artifacts such as jagged lines and delivers the highest quality digital image processing.

Xilleon 240 samples and reference designs, including ATI’s CARD, are available now to qualified customers in advance of volume shipment this fall.

ATI’s CARD (Customer Application Ready Design) is a highly scalable and complete software stack and reference platform that enables HDTV manufacturers to produce ATSC or Digital Cable Ready televisions (for CableCARD solutions) with minimum investment in time and resources.

ATI Technologies will exhibit its HDTV technologies at the DisplaySearch HDTV Conference 2005, held in The Beverly Hilton Hotel, Los Angeles, California from August 22 to 24, 2005.

About ATI Technologies
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 graphics processor unit (GPU) 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 device markets.

With 2004 revenues of US $2 billion, ATI has more than 2,700 employees in the Americas, Europe and Asia. ATI common shares trade on NASDAQ (ATYT) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (ATY).
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Bob Crabtree adds:
ATI already appears to dominate the market for integrated chippery for digital TV sets, and this latest announcement indicates it's only intent on getting more market share.