Here is our latest in a series of interviews with industry company executives, PR persons and general know-it-alls. The unique feature of this series is that you, our readers, are the ones asking the questions. In the spotlight today is Ben Bar Haim, ATI's VP of Software, who will be answering your questions - which mainly focus on ATI drivers, utilities, and software.
In ATI's own words, here is who they are and what they do:
Founded in 1985, ATI Technologies Inc. is a world leader in the design and manufacture of innovative visual processor solutions. A pioneer, an innovator and a market leader in the graphics industry, ATI provides cutting-edge visual processor technologies for the PC, Macintosh, workstation and notebook markets plus consumer markets including hand-held, set-top box and digital TVs.
richardginn asks: Are there are new features you will be adding to your CATALYST drivers for 2003?
Ben: ATI's CATALYST software suite is based on industry best practices such as: stability, frequent updates, performance boosts, ease of use, image quality, responsiveness and of course, functionality. We are always looking to add new features, but for obvious reasons I cannot comment on what these will be. Hopefully all your loyal readers and ATI enthusiasts will keep an eye out for our latest and greatest enhancements. To download the latest drivers go to:
SharkyExtreme asks: How have the 3rd-party OEM manufacturers changed ATI's driver development? Has this new business model helped or hindered the Catalyst revision cycle?
Ben: Our partnership with Add-In-Board (AIB) manufacturers has not had a major impact on our software operations. We have developed new processes to support AIB partners with software, in terms of both customization and bug fixing, but overall, this support fits between our OEM work and our support to the retail market. Keep in mind that much of the AIB engagement is becoming OEM engagement. In that respect it is not much different from our traditional OEM work.
The launch of CATALYST and the commitment we have made to offer CATALYST revisions eight to 10 times a year was not related to the AIB business. Historically, we have always provided OEMs with customized builds on a very frequent basis. With the introduction of CATALYST, our strategy changed. While we still support OEMs with extremely frequent drops and with customization, we now put a much higher priority on the retail space. We want to connect with our end-users directly, serve them better and get their feedback on how we are doing. We are also increasing our diligence with respect to performance and stability, and are keen to roll our improvements to the market as soon as they become available.
Kero-chan asks: I believe ATI made a programming language for graphics similar to NVIDIA's "Cg" (called RenderMonkey I think). Can you tell us more about it and what your future plans are? It doesn't seem as though you've been pushing it - in contrast we've heard more about NVIDIA's Cg.
Ben: Instead of developing a proprietary language, ATI has chosen to focus our efforts on developing utilities and software developer kits built on industry standards like Microsoft's DirectX 9.0 and OpenGL 2.0. This ensures that developers can focus on designing their games without concerning themselves with hardware compatibility. Spearheading our new suite of utilities is RenderMonkey, an extensible shader development tool that allows programmers and artists to collaborate on creating real-time shader effects using higher-level shader languages. Check out www.ati.com/developer for more details on RenderMonkey, the RADEON Software Developer Kit and ATI's other development utilities.
Kero-chan also asks: Is ATI working on a refresh rate fix for OpenGL?
Ben: The word 'fix' should probably be replaced with the word 'enhancement' for accuracy's sake ;) One of the limitations of Microsoft XP is the fact that both DirectX and OpenGL applications default to a 60Hz refresh rate. ATI has provided a user-friendly override in our control panel to overcome this issue. Our first implementation in CATALYST 02.4 was for DirectX applications only, as we wanted to be sure that our implementation was the most optimal. We are now putting the finishing touches on the OpenGL coding enhancement - you can expect this to be available for download soon.
Un4given asks: Since OpenGL is an x-platform standard, does ATI have plans to support OpenGL 2.0?
Ben: Support for OpenGL 2.0 is definitely on our roadmap. We are aggressively working with ISVs on a joint OpenGL 2.0 development, but we will only bring it to market when it becomes practical.
Renditionkid asks: Recently a patch was provided by BioWare, which was needed to run Neverwinter Nights on an ATI card using the 2.5 Catalyst drivers. No such patch is needed for a GeForce4 card. Is ATI doing anything to improve driver issues both in the actual software and in people's perceptions of ATI drivers?
Ben: ATI is constantly improving our level of developer support for ISVs. We provide increased access to our third party test lab, advanced engineering support, and our product samples are made available much earlier in the development cycle. The quality improvements provided by the CATALYST software suite and the great performance of the RADEON 9700 PRO have allowed our Developer Relations group to make great progress in this area, and as a result, companies like BioWare are better informed of ATI's market share and offerings.
So why is this important? In the past, the ISVs were seeded with pre-production and production hardware for development and testing as early as possible. However, it takes a strong market share message to ensure that ISVs continue to be forward-thinking and test our products early on in their development cycle. Thanks to the introduction of the dominant RADEON 9700 product family and our performance leadership, ATI is now being used in ISV development platforms.
Mr Cherry asks: Will ATI continue to support the entire RADEON family? And, with that, will you be implementing the feature "Blend Window" across your entire multimedia center software?
Ben: Absolutely. Our unified driver provides support to the entire RADEON family of products and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. As to our Multimedia Centre (MMC) application: from time to time, we do release MMC software specifically for the more advanced ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON products. When that happens, we always follow up with a subsequent release that expands the coverage to all currently supported Radeon products in the field.
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