At last year's Macworld Expo New York, ATI Technologies, Inc. was pushing their RADEON 3D graphics card as the ultimate choice for Macintosh gamers. This years, ATI focused on everyone else with the announcement of RADEON VE MAC EDITION. Of course, there's also that SMARTSHADER technology...

Based on ATI's highly integrated, cost-effective and award-winning RADEON VE chip, RADEON VE MAC EDITION is specifically designed to provide dual-display capability, enabling any combination of VGA (video graphics array), DVI (digital visual interface) and TV.

Positioned between ATI's RADEON and RagePro 128 cards in terms of power, RADEON VE MAC EDITION features 32MB of DDR (double data rate) memory and ATI's patented HYPER Z™ technology. Additional ATI features such as VIDEO IMMERSION™ and support of industry standards like OpenGL and QuickTime ensure that the RADEON VE MAC EDITION delivers excellent value for its price range, and meets the needs of the mainstream PCI Mac market.

"With this announcement, ATI has delivered the award-winning RADEON VE technology to the Apple space, bringing single-card dual-display support to the mainstream Mac market and broadening the spectrum of ATI offerings optimized for Macs," said Jewelle Schiedel-Webb, director, desktop marketing, ATI Technologies Inc. "The powerful 3D performance and flexible dual-display support that characterizes RADEON VE MAC EDITION make this an excellent graphics hardware choice for Mac users who are looking for proven and reliable technology."

RADEON VE MAC EDITION's support for dual independent displays allows users to set their system up with two CRT's (cathode ray tubes, or analog monitors) or a CRT and DFP (digital flat panel monitor) or a DFP and a TV. This multi-monitor capability increases productivity by doubling screen space, making multitasking easier. Users can read email on one screen while working on a spreadsheet on the other or reference the Internet on one screen while writing an essay on the other. Multi-monitor capability can take advantage of extra, unused monitors that can be found in many homes, essentially doubling screen space without having to purchase a new, larger monitor or an additional video card.

The RADEON VE MAC EDITION is geard towards computer use in homes and smaller offices. For the corporate market, RADEON VE MAC EDITION features solid 2D capabilities. For the home, RADEON VE MAC EDITION delivers solid 3D performance, integrated TV out and ATI's VIDEO IMMERSION technology for industry-leading video playback. However, ATI's Deana Perkins did suggest that gamers will probably want to stick with the Radeon. As she told me at the Expo, the RADEON VE MAC EDITION offers, "...graphics power for the rest of us." RADEON VE MAC EDITION supports both Mac OS 9.x and OS X.

RADEON VE MAC EDITION, with connectors for traditional CRT monitors, flat panel displays and TV out, will ship in September 2001 and will have a MSRP of $129. The card is PCI only, and no AGP version is planned at this time. More information can be found at ATI's website.

Deanna and I also took a few moments to talk about ATI's new SMARTSHADER™ technology. Unveiled the Monday before the show, SMARTSHADER, a next-generation graphics architecture, "...will narrow the gap in visual quality between the 'big screen' and the 'computer screen' by affording game developers the most advanced visual effects available on PC or Mac-based platforms."

"Developers of 3D applications have always had a difficult time creating truly realistic computer-generated characters, objects and environments in computer games," said Toshi Okumura, senior product manager, desktop marketing, ATI Technologies Inc. "This is a result of limited processing power and restricted flexibility found in existing graphics hardware. By combining the speed and optimizations of a dedicated graphics processor with the flexibility and programmability of a CPU, Smartshader technology provides a virtually limitless range of visual effects at interactive frame rates."

For the gear heads, here's an explanation of Smartshader technology:

Smartshader technology incorporates major advances in the area of Pixel Shaders, which are small programs that execute on every pixel rendered to the display device. With support for up to six textures in a single rendering pass, the memory bandwidth constraints associated with multi-pass rendering can be greatly reduced, which translates into better rendering performance. By doubling the maximum allowable length of the shader programs, more complex effects can be created to accurately model the visual properties of materials and surfaces, including hair, skin, wood, water and more. Additionally, SMARTSHADER Pixel Shaders introduce a simplified yet more powerful instruction set that lets developers design a much wider range of graphical effects with fewer operations. SMARTSHADER technology also includes support for Vertex Shaders, which are small programs that are executed on the vertices that form the building blocks of all 3D objects. These shaders can actually modify the shape and position of objects and are useful for handling advanced character animation, objects that bend and ripple like cloth or water, particle effects like sparks and rain, and much more.

For everyone else, here's a screen capture:

"The programmability and intelligent design of SMARTSHADER technology will substantially reduce the time it takes to bring innovative new graphics to the end-user," said Mr. Okumura. "Developers will no longer have to wait for new graphics hardware or new versions of their preferred graphics API (application programming interface); they can now easily write a shader to implement their new creative ideas."

For more information SMARTSHADER technology, visit ATI's website.

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