ATI Interview: You ask the questions

[Guilty]

I'm curious if ATI plans to push the limitations of video cards like 3dfx and nVidia did throughout 2000. With 3dfx gone, it's really up to ATI to keep the market in a fast moving pace instead of slowdowns and companies trying to get the maximum returns from a line of cards. Are they intrested in being the bane of nVidia's existance by forcing them to produce new products in quick cycles?

 

[pidge]

Also, did they hire any ex-3dfx employees?

 

[Eug]

<< Do Canadians prefer calling ham by its real name, ham or do they call it canadian bacon? Does he think Vince Carter is leaving the Toronto Raptors and heading to a US team? Since ATI and Matrox are both Canadian companies, do they ever play hockey or baseball together? If they do play together, who usually wins? >>

Heheh. ATI is in Toronto, and Matrox is in Montreal by the way, and I usually just call it ham.


Ok mine:

1) What will ATI's response be to nVidia's foray into the mobile market, with companies like Toshiba now going with the Geforce2Go chips?

2) Why do you think Apple chose to include nVidia cards instead of ATI cards in the higher end Macs? Does it have anything to do with recent miscommunications with Apple and Steve Jobs, regarding premature announcements from ATI?

3) Over here we hear only of ATI's North American sales. What is ATI's strategy in Asia and Europe, and what are the differences with what we see in North America?

4) Will ATI consider licencing its chips to 3rd party video card makers?

5) Has ATI considered moving beyond the video chip/card market?

6) What is the history behind the ATI and Intel cross-licensing agreement?

7) Being a Canadian company, does ATI see any advantages/disadvantages to maintaining its main operations in Canada?

 

[velvetfreak]

Thanks for the opportunity Anand.

I'd like to know how ATI plans to address the lower end of the market - people, for instance, who are able to get a feature-rich set like the GeForce2MX at an economy price. I'd like to know if their marketing realizes there's a hole at that end, with Matrox's 'sluggishness' and NVidia's poor 2D reputation.

Well that addresses my interests

 

[hagbard]

When are they going to release drivers for the AIW128 for WinME that allow for hibernation? And why is it that they abandon making new drivers as soon as they introduce a new product line.

...hag

 

[Mem]

<< It seems like nVidia picked up 3dfx for a song; why didn't ATi out bid them? >>



I think it has something to do with Nvidia lawsuit against 3dfx,would you buy a company that`s being sued?

I would like to know what ATi future plans are in general(I don`t mean roadmap).

 

[ElFenix]

any Gamecube tech making it to the PC side of things and vice versa? such as 1T SRAM, etc?

 

[Aquaman]

I heard some place a long time ago that Ati was going to try entering the 'set top' market. Any new news on this venture?

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[ViRGE]

What do you plan to do to overcome the stigma of Nvidia having better driver support, with their constant &quot;leaked&quot; drivers?

 

[Imaginer]

Will the All in wonder ever have a higher clocked core/memory and will it have more memory than before? Also, is HDTV a part of the TV tuner itself?

That and the same old question going around. Driver support. Driver support for Win2000, 98, and will there be a unified driver set that will mature as product cycles go on and a unified driver for each product that comes out.

 

[Imaginer]

Also, what does ATI have in store to match NVidia's future products?

How will ATI respond now that NVidia has some of 3dfx in their hands?

Are they going to develop performing mobile solutions? If so, when can we expect them and how will they perform against Nvidia's Geforce Go?

Any chance they might continue to develop a multi-gpu setup like with the Fury MAXX?

With the Radeon, will ATI plan to pursue both the business and gaming market for the long run? Will ATI plan to add &quot;tweaks&quot; for the hardcore gamer?

Anything innovative and new that they might develop for the future/near future?

 

[TheBigZ]

As mentioned before...

Drivers.

Drivers... drivers... drivers...

Why can't they put as much effort into their drivers, as they do to the hardware.

 

[vailr]

Any plans for upgrading/changing their TV tuners to a chip-based tuner, like the 3dfx Voodoo TV?
And future HDTV off-the-air tuner support?

 

[Charles]

General question: What's ATI's strategy to compete with nVidia especially in the professional 3D/gaming market?

 

[zsir]

Yeah like he's going to truthfully and concisley answer these quesitons.....

His replies will most likely be....

We currently have many intersting products under way....unfortunatley I can't comment on unreleased products at this time.

Drivers....At ATI we are commited to providing are customers with the best drivers possible....We are always working to improve and refine are drivers for the best performance and stability possible.....

Next question....


Ok here's one ...

Ask him what's the ATI 1-800 tech support number....?

 

[Imaginer]

Yes zsir but I will post these questions for free and see if they get answered.

 

[Tedtalker1]

Unified full drivers

 

[SendTrash]

1)With the recent news of the GeForce MX shipping with the new G4s is there concern at ATi about losing a long held market of MAC OEM Video Card Market to NVIDA? What is your viewpoint about this announcement?
2)When can we expect a driver set based on the Radeon , not the Rage128? (Need real answer, not &quot;soon&quot How many engineerers are working on it?

 

[jpprod]

From the released specs, Nintendo Gamecube's graphics chip would seem like a worthy contender to nVidia's upcoming NV2X line, feature and speed-wise. Is ATI planning to deliver a PC graphics accelerator based on the ArtX chip being used on Gamecube in the near future?

 

[LXi]

Will there be an alliance with, say, S3 or Matrox, to team up against nVidia? And when?

 

[HellRaven]

All you people asking about an ATI mobile soltion, they are almost done with a mobile version of the Radeon core. They aren't announcing it officially until the laptops based on it are actually released - probably has a little to do with the mac debacle.


My questions?

Could we get a status update on the Radeon Unified Drivers?

Please tell us anything you can about your future products ( yeah right )

 

[Czar]

Wow,

Anyway

Will ATI bring out cards to compete with the likes of GeForce2 MX?

What is the status on the driver department, how much has it grown since the Maxx came out?

How will the next ATI card compete with NV20 and G800 in terms of speed and fetures?

Will we see unified drivers from ATI?

Think thats all, but I´m sure I forgot something

 

[oldfart]

Well, I would say show him this thread. Everyone pretty much has the same concern. Drivers. ATI has a nice piece of hardware in the Radeon. Their (well earned) reputation for poor driver support is hurting them. I'll say the same. Where are these new DX8 unified drivers that are a ground up new set? A date when they can be expected to be seen would be nice to hear, not a cute little soon type response.

With Nvidia in the Xbox, the Mac, and having a serious hold of the retail and OEM PC market, what is ATI doing to ensure game developers are coding their products to work well with the ATI cards?

When will there be a (specific) use for that untapped 3rd texture unit?

 

[BenSkywalker]

How are things going with their first major set top design(GameCube)?

Are you actively, or looking at, entering the professional 3D graphics realm?(If so, when will we see a product?)

Do you see the market headed more towards full integration, or will it remain a low end solution for the forseeable future?

Will the next Radeon revision be a fully DX8 compliant part, or is that offering coming at a later date?

Is there any possibility of ATi entering the motherboard chipset market as some other companies involved in the graphics business are now doing?

Are there any more exciting new PC video technologies we can expect from ATi in the next year?

When can we expect to see a PC derived part from the ArtX acquisition?

Is ATi going to actively continue competing in the high end gaming market?

Hmmm, that's all I can think of now(I don't think any of those have been asked yet, I tried to follow the rules).

 

[Buddabudda]

I really like this question stated earlier,

4) Will ATI consider licencing its chips to 3rd party video card makers?

Do they think that 3dfx's recluctance to do this attributed to their demise? Might driver developement issues we are seeing here be attributed to not having other developers working on them also like Nvida does. I can see keeping the OEM contracts with-in ATI but not licencing to 3rd parties doesn't seem to be effective to me at least.