ATi Push For Stream Computing

Today ATI (TSX:ATY)(NASDAQ:ATYT) announced that it is pioneering a newtechnology known as Stream Computing, that has the potential to dramaticallyimpact almost every sector of the market. Along with leading companies andacademic institutions worldwide, ATI is working to build a stream computingecosystem, one that delivers the performance, applications, software and toolsnecessary to turn ATI's vision into reality.

Stream computing allows ATI graphics processors (GPUs) to work in concert withtoday's high-performance, low-latency computer processors (CPUs) to solvecomplex computational problems. Using stream computing, in simulations todayprocessing of risk assessment models similar to those used by financialinstitutions' were completed 16 times faster than traditional methods(1), oiland gas companies are seeing seismic model processing increased by more than 20times(1), and Stanford University is seeing disease research accelerated by asmuch as 40 times, giving them the ability to process three years worth ofresearch data in just one month(2).

Stream computing makes use of ATI's sophisticated graphics processors (GPUs)that have until now, been used solely to calculate and render millions of pixelsonto computer monitors, hundreds of times each second. Stream computingharnesses that tremendous processing power for a wide range of scientific,business and consumer computing applications, providing organizations theability to process incredible amounts of information in significantly less time.

"ATI processors are some of the most technologically advanced computingarchitectures on the planet," said Dave Orton, president and CEO, ATITechnologies Inc. "They were designed with more than just graphics in mind, andtoday we're seeing the initial fruits of those labors with the introduction ofour stream computing initiatives. Fortune 1000 companies, leading softwaredevelopers, and academic institutions are demonstrating today that streamcomputing is they key to tremendous performance in a number of applications.Today's announcement is part of our vision of becoming a processing powerhousein the months and years to come - we're beginning to build the stream computingplatform today."

"Stream computing is a great representation of the vision of AMD's Torrenzaplatform strategy - bringing the unique capabilities of two heterogeneousprocessing solutions together to solve complex problem sets and change thegame," said Marty Seyer, senior vice president, Commercial Segment, AMD."Combining AMD64 with stream computing from ATI to address specific applicationworkloads will open up new innovation possibilities in markets such ashigh-performance computing environments. Torrenza-based technologies have thepotential to enable information to flow seamlessly between them in order tosolve problems in the most cost-effective and timely manner. We see thepotential over time for these two processing elements to become even moretightly coupled."

"The raw computational power of these DirectX-based processors is incredible andharnessing those capabilities for general purpose applications makes a lot ofsense," said Dean Lester, general manager of the Graphics Platforms Unit,Microsoft Corp. "Stream computing has the potential to positively impact howorganizations analyze data by improving the accuracy and efficiency with whichcritical business decisions are made, as well as enhancing the overall consumerexperience by enabling compelling, high-fidelity environments to gamers today.Microsoft is working closely with ATI towards a future where all of ourcustomers can experience the benefits that stream computing has to offer."

"The combined power of ATI processors and Havok FX enables physical realism onlydreamed of by today's game designers," said Jeff Yates, vice president, productmanagement, Havok. "Realistic physics is the future of videogames and togetherwe're making it possible. Just as real-time lighting and shadows are standard intoday's games, there will come a time when no game is without this level ofimmersive, true-to-life physics."

ATI's high-end processor today makes use of 48 compute cores that results in anorder of magnitude processing speed-up. In certain applications(3), ATIprocessors perform up to 40 times faster than competing processors. Theaccelerated processing associated with stream computing has implications for anumber of fields now and in the future, as the ecosystem around stream computingmatures:

Scientific research - Today ATI's stream computing efforts are helping to savelives by driving life sciences to produce results faster in areas such asdisease research, giving organizations the option to do more granular studies inthe same amount of time as in the past(4). ATI announced today that StanfordUniversity will make available a new distributed computing application thattakes advantage of ATI processors for disease research. In the future, climateresearch may also benefit from stream computing as analysis of large data setsfor storm and hurricane forecasting can be done faster or in more detail,potentially resulting in the issuing of warnings longer in advance of severeweather, and ultimately a better understanding of the world's climate.

Homeland security - Communications analysis and facial recognition can bedrastically improved using stream computing, with implications for airportsecurity, as well as photograph and video analysis.

Financial forecasting - Major institutions have been using server farms to dorisk assessment using Monte Carlo simulations, and for derivatives pricing usingmodels like Black-Scholes. Simulations conducted by PeakStream, Inc. using ATIhardware shows that stream computing can provide these companies with moredetailed answers in significantly less time, letting them make the businessdecisions they need to faster, and giving them a leg up on their competition.

Oil and gas - Companies are using stream computing to analyze more data inshorter periods of time to more quickly and reliably discover where resourceslie, speeding discoveries of crude oil deposits. ATI graphic processors inconcert with PeakStream's software platform are allowing oil and gas companiesto achieve significantly faster seismic data modeling.

Database searching - For search companies with incredibly large databases toorganize and sort through, stream computing may offer a compelling business caseproviding increased processing power in less space.

Consumer applications - Software used by millions of people around the world,such as operating systems, office applications, and graphics applications, canbenefit from stream computing. Any graphics-laden software that requires heavyprocessing can be accelerated.

Videogames - An area where ATI processors are already heavily used for graphicspurposes, working with Havok, premier provider of software and services tointeractive digital media creators, stream computing is resulting in life-likemodeling of hair, cloth, smoke, liquid, and the physics behind them, givinggamers the most immersive experience possible.

Other areas that stream computing has the potential to impact in the futureinclude enterprise software, product design and manufacturing, and digital mediaencoding among others.

With this new opportunity, ATI is also announcing a specific focus on enterprisestream computing in an effort to drive commercial adoption of stream computingwith the help of its partners. For more information on ATI's stream computinginitiatives, please see related company announcements made today on the topicsof enterprise stream computing, and Stanford University's Folding@home program.