ATI Announces Support for AMD Athlon™ XP Processor 1800+

All current ATI products will greatly enhance visual experience

MARKHAM, Ontario -- 10/9/2001 -- ATI Technologies Inc. (TSE: ATY, NASDAQ: ATYT), a world leader in the supply of graphics, video and multimedia solutions, today announced that all of its industry-leading graphics processor products -- including the world’s fastest and most technologically advanced graphics chip, the RADEON™ 8500 -- support AMD’s new AMD Athlon™ XP processor 1800+.

The AMD Athlon XP processor 1800+, featuring Quantispeed™ architecture, is designed to provide the extra performance needed for the ultimate computing experience. It combines this outstanding performance with ease of use and support for the world’s most popular software.

ATI’s RADEON 8500 enhances the performance of AMD’s latest AMD Athlon processor because it is the most advanced graphics chip in the world, delivering up to 32 percent higher performance than the nearest competitive product (1). It features a core clock speed of 275 MHz (megahertz), memory clock speed of 275 MHz and 64 MB (megabytes) of DDR (double data rate) memory. In addition, it features TRUFORM™, an innovative rendering technology that helps to deliver the smoothest, most natural 3D images ever seen on existing and next-generation 3D games, and SMARTSHADER™, an advanced technology that is the first application of its kind to take advantage of Microsoft’s new DirectX 8.1 specification, including supporting Pixel Shaders Version 1.4. This enables more complex and realistic texture and lighting effects without sacrificing performance. DirectX 8.1 is an integral part of the Windows XP® operating system, for which RADEON 8500 is optimized.

“ATI congratulates AMD on the announcement of the AMD Athlon XP processor,” said Rick Bergman, Senior Vice President of Marketing & General Manager, Desktop Business Unit, ATI Technologies Inc. “As before, this latest processor from AMD is fully supported by all current ATI hardware and software driver technologies, including the award-winning RADEON 8500, which will result in a faster, more significantly-enhanced 3D visual experience for both AMD and ATI customers.”

“The AMD Athlon XP processor 1800+ with QuantiSpeed architecture offers outstanding performance and is the perfect marriage with ATI’s newest line of Radeon 8500 graphics cards,” said Richard Heye, vice president, Platform Engineering & Infrastructure, Computation Products Group for AMD. “We’re confident that consumers can benefit from the combination and can finally take advantage of advanced architectures that offer incredible performance for today’s PC desktop systems.”

About the AMD Athlon™ XP Processor
The AMD Athlon™ XP processor features QuantiSpeed™ architecture, 384KB of on-chip, full-speed cache, and support for AMD's 3DNow!™ Professional instructions for enhanced multimedia capabilities.
The AMD Athlon XP processor is compatible with AMD's Socket A infrastructure, and supports the advanced 266MHz front-side bus.
AMD Athlon XP processors are manufactured using AMD's 0.18-micron copper process technology in Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany.

Company Background
AMD is a global supplier of integrated circuits for the personal and networked computer and communications markets with manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Asia. AMD, a Fortune 500 and Standard & Poor’s 500 company, produces microprocessors, flash memory devices, and support circuitry for communications and networking applications. Founded in 1969 and based in Sunnyvale, California, AMD had revenues of (US) $4.6 billion in 2000. (NYSE: AMD). Additional press releases and information about AMD and its products are available at: http://www.amd.com/news/news.html

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).

1) Based on 3Dmark 2001 benchmarks performed in September 2001 (RADEON 8500 scored 7416, GeForce3 scored 5627)