ATi Technologies
Advanced Technology Information Systems (ATI) was one of the first manufacturers of graphics expansion cards for the IBM PC and its compatibles. The 'Wonder' series of cards was introduced in 1987, and was superceded by the Mach range with the introduction of the Mach8 in 1990.
Product Lines:
- The "Wonder" series (EGA Wonder, VGA Wonder, Small Wonder) - 1987-1991
- The "Mach" series (Mach8, Mach32, Mach64) - 1990 - 1996
- The "Rage" series (Rage, Rage II, Rage III) 1996 - 2000
- The "Radeon" series - 2000 - Present
ATI Technologies was acquired by AMD in 2006, who continued with the Radeon line.
Mach 8 Series
The mach8 chip was ATi's first graphics accelerator chip, and was effectively a clone of IBM's 8514/A XGA chip found on some of their high-end PS/2 computer series, though they implemented it on the ISA bus rather the Micro-Channel Architecture (MCA). Launched in 1991, mach8 was used on the Graphics Ultra and Graphics Vantage cards.
Mach 32 Series
The mach32 chip (ATI68800) is the immediate predecessor to the mach64 family. The mach32 was register compatible with both the IBM 8514/A and the mach8. The mach32 also contained a VGA controller on the chip that was compatible with the VGAWONDER so a separate VGA controller was not needed. The memory on the mach32 board was shared between the VGA controller and the mach32 accelerator. The mach32 improved upon the mach8 by providing a linear aperture to allow fast image data transfer by mapping the video memory to the system memory address space. Later revisions of the mach32 also were able to memory map the mach32 registers to overcome the performance penalty incurred in going through I/O port-mapped registers. Finally, the mach32 contained a hardware cursor. mach32-based boards were produced in five bus types: ISA, EISA, VESA Local Bus, Microchannel, and PCI.
Mach 64 Series
The mach64 represented a departure from the mach32 in that it was no longer register
compatible with previous ATI graphics accelerators or the 8514/A. (VGA register
compatibility was retained, however.) This departure was necessary to resolve some
design limitations that were a legacy of the older generation chips. Fortunately, almost all
the functionality that was in the mach32 was preserved in the mach64 design, and some
useful additions and enhancements were incorporated.
As indicated on the table below, the mach64 can be divided into two major types, the GX
family and the CT family. While applications that use the mach64 should run on both
types with little or no modification, there are some important differences between the two families that are highlighted in the following sections.
Boards based on mach64 are produced in ISA, VESA Local Bus and PCI bus versions.
The mach64 family was further split into mach64GX, mach64CT, and mach64VT:
Mach 64GX
The mach64GX family encompasses the mach64GX (ATI888GX00) and mach64CX
(ATI888CX00) variants. The major distinguishing characteristics of this family are the use of an external DAC and external clock synthesizer, support for VRAM, VGA controller is ATI VGAWONDER-compatible and is independently programmable from the accelerator controller. From a very rough architectural perspective, the mach64GX family more resembles the
mach32 than it does the mach64CT family. However, from a functionality and register
level perspective, the mach64GX is almost identical to the mach64CT.
Mach 64CT
The mach64CT family encompasses the mach64CT (ATI264CT), mach64VT (ATI264VT) and mach64GT (3D RAGE) variants. The major distinguishing characteristics of this family are integrated DAC and clock synthesizer, no VRAM support, the VGA controller is "pure" VGA (not VGAWONDER-compatible) and the VGA controller is not independently programmable from the accelerator controller.
Mach 64VT
The mach64VT family of chips is built upon the previously mentioned CT. They have the
same feature set as the CT, plus some additional video features such as back end hardware overlay and back end hardware scaler.
RAGE Series
Mach 64GT (3D RAGE, RAGE ii, ii+, IIc, RAGE PRO)
The mach64GT (commonly known as the 3D RAGE) introduced hardware support for 3D operations. The 3D RAGE included all mach64VT features with the addition of hardware 3D acceleration, improved video filtering, and integrated motion compensation (RAGE PRO only).
In order of performance for gaming desktops, the Rage series looks like this (from slowest to fastest):
3D Rage (slowest)
Rage II+ DVD
Rage Pro
Rage IIc
Rage Pro Turbo
Rage 128 Ultra
Rage 128 Pro
Rage Fury
Rage Fury MAXX (fastest)
Mach 64LB (RAGE LT-PRO)
The mach64LB (commonly known as the RAGE LT-PRO) provides the mach64GT core hardware support for 3D operations. The RAGE LT-PRO includes all mach64GT features with the addition of an integrated TV-Encoder, LVDS, and Dual CRT Controllers, plus the graphics subsystem power.
Mach 64GM (RAGE XL)
The mach64GM (commonly known as the RAGE XL) provides the mach64GT core hardware support for 3D operations. The RAGE XL includes all mach64GT features with the addition of an integrated TMDS for flat panels and integrated motion compensation.
Mach 64LM (RAGE MOBILITY M/P/M1)
The mach64LM (commonly known as the RAGE MOBILITY) provides the mach64GT core hardware support for 3D operations. The RAGE MOBILITY includes all mach64GT features with the addition of very low graphics subsystem power, integrated TMDS for flat panels and hardware DVD decode via integrated iDCT.
Products are listed in chronological order based on their release date.
Graphics Cards
EGA Wonder
Its adverts touted its ability to run on a wide variety of monitor types, including EGA, NEC Multisync, standard RGB, those that supported 25-Khz colour, TTL monochrome and composite. In text modes, it could also display up to 132 columns, making Lotus 1-2-3 and Symphony users able to view a year of data on a single screen. WordStar and WordPerfect also had built-in support for 132-column mode. ATI even offered a $99 interface to allow the EGA Wonder to fit inside the Compaq Portable, replacing its own internal display controller. This interface connected to EGA Wonder's 'feature connector' along the top.
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EGA Wonder 800
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EGA Wonder VIP
It could run in 800 x 560 resolutions as well as VGA 640 x 480 and 732 x 410 on a Multisync monitor. |
EGA Wonder 800+
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Small Wonder v1
Released: 1988 The Small Wonder (full name "Small Wonder Graphics Solution") was a Hercules clone also able to support extended CGA modes like 640 x 200 in 16 colours as well as 132-column text. The Small Wonder has three fonts, but its third font isn't the same as the IBM 'thin' font. It has narrower characters (5 pixels wide rather than 7) and I think it gets used in some of the extended modes.
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Small Wonder v2
Released: 1988 A minor update on Small Wonder version 1. In "Mono monitor" mode, it uses the 720x350 mode (even for CGA simulation), but it may use 8x8 font mode in CGA monitor/composite mode. DIP switch settings are the same as for the Small Wonder v1.
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VGA Wonder
It uses an onboard EEPROM chip to store its configuration settings, and has monitor auto-sensing (so no DIP switches). A cost-reduced version of the VGA Wonder was released called the VGA Edge 8 (aka VGA Wonder 256), which came with 256 KB RAM. Advertisement, Operations Manual |
VGA Wonder 16
It came with a Bus mouse connector and a VGA pass-through connector. A cost-reduced version of the VGA Wonder 16 (256 KB variant) was released called the VGA Edge 16. This lacked the bus mouse connector and the digital TTL output. |
Prism VGA / Prism Elite
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VGA Wonder +
In 1990, the VGA Wonder + was launched, based on their new 28800 chipset which claimed to offer speeds rivalling VRAM-based cards. Dual page mode memory access, and dynamic CPU/CRT interleaving.
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VGA Integra
Also launched in 1990, the Integra was a cost-reduced version of the VGA Wonder+ and shared the same new 28800 chipset. It has a much smaller PCB with surface-mounted BIOS and RAMDAC chips. It lacks the bus mouse connector. This card supports SVGA 72 Hz refresh rates, and comes with 512 KB DRAM as standard.
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VGA Basic 16
The VGA Basic 16 was designed to be the budget offering while still suing the latest 28800 chipset. Its PCB layout is similar to the VGA Integra but it uses a cheaper RAMDAC. It only supports the basic 60 Hz refresh rate VGA modes (same as IBM VGA standard from 1987), and came with only 256 KB DRAM which was not upgradable.
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VGA Charger
Similar to VGA Basic 16, but memory was doubled to 512 KB. |
VGA Wonder XL
The VGA Wonder XL got the Sierra HiColor RAMDAC which adds support for 15-bit colour in 640x480 @ 72 Hz and 800x600 @ 60 Hz. Cards tend to come with 256 KB 80ns DRAM soldered-in with a further 768 KB capacity in DRAM sockets. These accept 70ns DRAMs. Technical Reference Manual
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VGA Wonder XL24
The RAMDAC adds support for hi and true colour graphics modes. |
VGA Wonder 1024D
The XL24 and 1024 were a series of cost-reduced versions of several VGA Wonder models. They typically lack the bus mouse connector and/or the digital TTL output. |
VGA Stereo F/X
The Stereo F/X basically combined a VGA Wonder XL with a Sound Blaster 1.5 onto a single 16-bit ISA card. It features "fake" stereo sound when playing back mono sound files, believed to be by separating frequencies and playing different ones back on left and right channels. The 512 KB version gives you 640 x 480 and 800 x 600 resolutions in 256 colours and 1024 x 768 in 16 colours. The 1 MB version gives you 1024 x 768 in 256 colours. At the lower resolutions of 640 x 480 and 800 x 600 this card supports 32,768 simutaneous colours with its use of the Sierra Hi-Color RAMDAC chip. The Stereo F/X supports up to 72 Hz refresh rates but you needed the full 1MB DRAM version for this to work in SVGA modes. It has a real OPL2 chip but can also use Creative's CMS chips, making it CMS-/Game Blaster-compatible if you install these. All settings such as Base address, IRQ and DMA channel are stored in an EPROM chip, so there are no jumpers to configure on this board. The utility disk contains a config program. It's a very loud sound card (audibly), as all sound is output through an onboard amplifier. Summing Up: A decent SVGA graphics card with very good FM audio output, but suffers from less-than 100% compatibility. More Images:
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Graphics Ultra
The first card from ATi to host their first 2D hardware accelerator chip - the Mach8. This was essentially a clone of the IBM 8514/A with a few notable extensions such as Crystal fonts. Being one of the first graphics accelerator chips on the market, the Mach8 did not have an integrated VGA core, i.e. it was just an accelerator card. In order to use the first Mach8 coprocessor cards, a separate VGA card was required. A temporary solution was presented with the ATi Graphics Ultra and Vantage cards, which combined an ATi 8514 Ultra and VGA Wonder+ into a single card (though using discrete ICs). The mach8 (ATI38800) was ATI's first true Graphics Accelerator, providing hardware assisted drawing capabilities for 2D primitives like lines, rectangles and polygons. It was register compatible with the IBM 8514/A Display Adapter. Thus any applications or drivers that supported the 8514/A would run on a mach8 without any modification. The mach8 also extended on the 8514/A specification. The mach8 did not have any VGA compatibility so a separate VGA controller was required for standard text and VGA modes. Some mach8 boards, like the GRAPHICS VANTAGE and GRAPHICS ULTRA included a VGAWONDER controller on the same board as the mach8 to provide this VGA support. The VGA controller had its own memory, completely separate from the mach8 accelerator's memory. mach8-based boards were produced in both ISA and Microchannel versions. Rough theoretical performance of this card is 10 MPixel/s pixel rate, and 0 MTexel/s texture rate. Memory performance is 40 MB/s. It blew away its competitors performance-wise upon its release in early 1992.
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Graphics Ultra Plus
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Graphics Vantage
Identical to the Graphics Ultra, but used DRAM instead of the faster VRAM. The Graphics Vantage was a high-end graphics card by ATI, launched in January 1992. Built on the 800nm process, and based on the Mach8 graphics processor, in its 38800-1 variant, the card does not support DirectX. The Mach8 graphics processor is a relatively small chip with a die area of only 90 mm². It features 1 pixel shader and 0 vertex shaders, 0 texture mapping units and 1 ROP. Due to the lack of unified shaders you will not be able to run recent games at all (which require unified shader/DX10+ support). ATi has placed 1 MB DRAM memory on the card, which are connected using a 32-bit memory interface. The GPU is operating at a frequency of 10 MHz, memory is running at 10 MHz. Display outputs include: 1x VGA.
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Graphics Ultra Pro (ISA)
The Graphics Ultra Pro ISA was a enthusiast-class graphics card by ATI, launched in January 1992. Built on the 700nm process, and based on the Mach32 graphics processor, in its Mach32-03 variant, the card does not support DirectX. The Mach32 graphics processor is a relatively small chip with a die area of only 90 mm². It features 1 pixel shaders and 0 vertex shaders, 0 texture mapping units and 1 ROPs. Due to the lack of unified shaders you will not be able to run recent games at all (which require unified shader/DX10+ support). ATI has placed 2 MB DRAM memory on the card, which are connected using a 64-bit memory interface. The GPU is operating at a frequency of 10 MHz, memory is running at 10 MHz. |
Graphics Ultra Pro (PCI)
The Graphics Ultra Pro PCI was a graphics card by ATI, launched in January 1993. Built on the 700 nm process, and based on the Mach32 graphics processor, in its Mach32 AX variant, the card does not support DirectX. The Mach32 graphics processor is a relatively small chip with a die area of only 90 mm². It features 1 pixel shader and 0 vertex shaders, 0 texture mapping units and 1 ROPs. Due to the lack of unified shaders you will not be able to run recent games at all (which require unified shader/DX10+ support). ATI has placed 1 MB DRAM memory on the card, which are connected using a 64-bit memory interface. The GPU is operating at a frequency of 66 MHz, memory is running at 83 MHz. |
Mach64
Mach64 Software Development Kit
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WinCharger
The WinCharger was a cost-reduced version of the mach64 with an integrated RAMDAC. The WinCharger was a performance graphics card by ATI, launched in November 1995. Built on the 600 nm process, and based on the Mach64 graphics processor, in its Mach64 CT variant, the card does not support DirectX. The Mach64 graphics processor is a relatively small chip with a die area of only 90 mm² and 1 million transistors. It features 1 pixel shaders and 0 vertex shaders, 0 texture mapping units and 1 ROPs. Due to the lack of unified shaders you will not be able to run recent games at all (which require unified shader/DX10+ support). ATI has placed 2 MB EDO memory on the card, which are connected using a 64-bit memory interface. The GPU is operating at a frequency of 40 MHz, memory is running at 40 MHz. Rough theoretical performance of this card is 40 MPixel/s pixel rate, and 0 MTexel/s texture rate. Memory bandwidth is approximately 320 MB/s.
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Mach64 VT2
This was ATi's last 2D card.
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3D Rage
The 3D Rage was the first "3D accelerator" graphics card by ATi, launched in April 1996. Built on the 500 nm process, and based on the Mach64 GT graphics processor, in its 215GT1NA21 variant, the card supports DirectX 5.0. The Mach64 GT graphics processor is a relatively small chip with a die area of only 90 mm² and 5 million transistors. It features 1 pixel shader and 0 vertex shaders, 1 texture mapping unit and 1 ROP. Due to the lack of unified shaders you will not be able to run recent games at all (which require unified shader/DX10+ support). ATI has placed 2 MB EDO memory on the card, which are connected using a 64-bit memory interface. The GPU is operating at a frequency of 44 MHz, memory is running at 57 MHz. This card suffered from slow EDO RAM compared to its competitor, the S3 ViRGE, which was first to the 3D market - the Rage only had a 32-bit memory path compared to the ViRGE's 64-bit wide path.
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3D Xpression
The 3D Xpression card was the first to sport ATi's new 3D chip, 3D Rage. It retained the Mach64 architecture with integrated DAC and clock synthesizer, and added a 3D engine into the same chip. Key features:
As a first-generATion 3D chip it proved about as useless as offerings from Matrox and nVidia. Very low feature set and not fully DirectX- and Direct3D-compatible.
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3D Rage II
ATi launched their second generation 3D chip, the Rage II, with the Mach64 GT. This corrected all the mistakes made with the 3D Rage chip - with all critical 3D features now present and working. It redesigned its Mach64 core and added MPEG2 playback (DVD). Z-buffering was now implemented in hardware, as this was now a requirement of many Direct3D games. Cards with the original Rage II chip were usually named 3D Xpression+. The GPU operated at a frequency of 60 MHz, memory was running at 83 MHz. Rough theoretical performance of this card is 60 MPixel/s pixel rate, and 60 MTexel/s texture rate. Memory bandwidth is approximately 664 MB/s. Key features:
3D gaming with a 2 MB card is very limiting. For it's time Rage II was feature-rich, but all members of the Rage II family suffer from perspective problems - some surfaces appear wavy instead of straight. Similar performance to S3 ViRGE/GX (released around same time) in average framerates on the 2 MB card - 4 MB should be better. AST shipped the 3D Rage II in their MS 51xx, 52xx, 62xx and 63xx desktop computers in 1997, as did IBM for their Aptiva range and Toshiba in their shortlived desktop ranges: Infinia and Equium.
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All-In-WonderPrice: $250 (mid-1997)
"ATI All-IN-WONDER is the 7-in-1 graphics, TV and multimedia solution for PC, delivering 3D, 2D and video acceleration with an intelligent TV tuner, video capture and TV display. It is designed exclusively for Microsoft Windows95(tm)**. You'll enjoy outstanding 3D performance while playing games or adding 3D elements to design or multimedia projects. Plus get awesome 2D performance, ultra-high resolution, full-motion video and the ability to play games or do presentations on a big screen TV. The TV tuner lets you zoom in on the action, capture video from your TV or camcorder, watch PC video clips while still offering fast graphics. ALL-IN-WONDER will even watch TV for you, unattended."
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3D Rage II+ DVD
A minor refresh over the 3D Rage II, the Rage II+ featured MPEG2 support as well as better 3D (30% better triangle performance over Rage II was claimed by ATI). All cards from this point on carried the "A3D" logo. The 3D Rage II+ DVD was a graphics card by ATI, launched in September 1996. Built on the 500 nm process, and based on the Mach64 GT-B graphics processor, in its 215GT2UB24 variant, the card supports DirectX 5.0. The Mach64 GT-B graphics processor is a relatively small chip with a die area of only 90 mm² and 5 million transistors. It features 1 pixel shaders and 0 vertex shaders, 1 texture mapping units and 1 ROPs. Due to the lack of unified shaders you will not be able to run recent games at all (which require unified shader/DX10+ support). ATI has placed 4 MB SDR memory on the card, which are connected using a 64-bit memory interface. The GPU is operating at a frequency of 60 MHz, memory is running at 83 MHz. In reality, the claimed improvements in the 3D architecture are not evident when playing games, so the only benefit you're likely to see from the Rage II+ DVD over the Rage II is more video RAM.
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3D Rage IIC (AGP)
Cards sporting the original Rage II chip were usually named 3D Xpression+ and came with 2 to 4 MB SGRAM. The 3D Rage IIC AGP was a graphics card by ATI, launched in September 1996. Built on the 500 nm process, and based on the Rage 2 graphics processor, in its 215R2QZUA21 variant, the card supports DirectX 5.0. The Rage 2 graphics processor is a relatively small chip with a die area of only 90 mm² and 5 million transistors. It features 1 pixel shaders and 0 vertex shaders, 1 texture mapping units and 1 ROPs. Due to the lack of unified shaders you will not be able to run recent games at all (which require unified shader/DX10+ support). ATI has placed 4 MB SDR memory on the card, which are connected using a 64-bit memory interface. The GPU is operating at a frequency of 60 MHz, memory is running at 83 MHz. Rough theoretical performance of this card is 60 MPixel/s pixel rate, and 60 MTexel/s texture rate. Memory bandwidth is approximately 664 MB/s. Similar performance to S3 ViRGE/GX2, i.e. pretty poor! The core technology on this ATI card is better, but is let down by the slow core clock of 60 MHz and memory running at just 83 MHz. The Rage IIc's drivers eventually got nice and stable (not always the case with ATI's drivers - the earlier Rage II ones were poor). Rage II chipset can be considered a decent low-end architecture - insufficient fillrates for 640 x 480. Don't be fooled by how much ATI had of the 3D market in 1996-1997 - the Rage II chipset went out in droves, but was never considered a top performer.
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3D Charger
ATi launched the new Rage II+DVD chip on their new card, the 3D Charger which featured not only the new chipset but also MPEG-2 playback. The "+" part of the 3D chip was tweaked with ATi claiming 30% performance increase in small triangle rendering (over the Rage II chip). From this point on, all Rage chips carried the new "A3D" logo emblazened on the chip. Unfortunately, improvements in real gaming cannot be noticed over the Rage II chip. Key features:
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Video Xpression+ / Mach64 VT4
This was ATi's last 2D card. Key features:
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3D Rage Pro (AGP)
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3D Rage Pro Turbo (AGP)
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3D Rage XL
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Rage 128
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Rage 128
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Rage 128GL / Fury
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Radeon 7000-series
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Radeon 8000-series
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Sound Cards
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Stereo F/X-CDIntroduced: 1993. |
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