ATI Technologies: from garage to giant in 13 years

By Richard Morochove

First published September 3, 1998

What connection do Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer and ATI Technologies have in common? All three computer technology companies began their lives inauspiciously in a garage.

While HP and Apple sprang to life in Silicon Valley, graphics hardware specialist ATI began operations near the Don Valley. Two years after K.Y. Ho emigrated from Hong Kong, he started ATI in 1985 in a garage on the Danforth on the east side of Toronto.

From just a handful of workers thirteen years ago, ATI now employs 1,400. About 800 work in Thornhill, Ont., just north of Toronto, while the others are in offices that span the globe: in the U.S., Germany, France, U.K., Ireland, Japan, Malaysia and Barbados.

ATI's revenues topped $1 billion in the year that ended in August, up from $600 million in 1997. That makes ATI the third-largest Canadian-owned and managed high-tech company, after Northern Telecom and Newbridge Networks.

ATI competes with a number of graphics chip and board makers, including behemoth Intel and Montreal-based Matrox. ATI has clearly pulled ahead of the pack in the past year and now has a 24 per cent share of worldwide graphics shipments in the second quarter, up from 11 per cent in 1996, according to a report from industry analysts Mercury Research. ATI reminds me of Intel or Microsoft a decade ago, and looks poised to dominate the graphics market.

Company founder K.Y. (as he is known to his employees), attributes ATI's success to an emphasis on research and development and good relationships with the world's largest computer makers. ATI manufactures its chips and boards in-house, which allows it to introduce new technology quickly and maintain strict quality control standards.

While ATI is one of the brightest jewels in Canada's high-tech crown, the company has a low profile outside the industry. In part that's because most of its products are sold directly to computer makers outside Canada. Its customer list reads like a roll call of the world's top computer manufacturers. Compaq, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Toshiba, Apple and Packard Bell/NEC all use ATI products in their computers.

There's a good chance there's an ATI chip or board powering the graphics in your PC. ATI chips support the latest models, providing the graphics for Apple's popular iMac home PC and supporting Microsoft's WebTV.

ATI resembles Hewlett-Packard and Intel in that it's an engineering-driven company. At one time, ATI's marketing materials seemed to begin and end with the product specifications printed on a plain sheet of paper. When the company's growing success allowed it to boost the marketing budget, it printed the specs on glossy paper and slapped a photo of the product on the reverse.

While the specifications suitably impressed the purchasing engineers, they weren't understandable to average PC users. Recently, ATI has started to change tack.

Technology is now changing so rapidly that the graphics chip that comes with your computer will become outdated within a couple of years. You won't be able to take advantage of the latest advances in software unless your graphics hardware supports it. So ATI is now devoting more resources to marketing graphics boards you can install in your own PC to upgrade your system to the latest technology.

Last week, ATI announced its next generation graphics chip, the Rage 128 GL. With over 50 patents issued and pending, the Rage 128 GL uses 128-bit technology along with 32 MB of memory to deliver photo-realistic 3D graphics that will take your breath away.

The company also announced the Rage 128 VR chip. The less expensive VR is similar to the GL, but contains half the memory. It has a 64-bit external connection, although internal calculations use 128-bits. Both chips are now shipping in sample quantities to computer makers, with volume shipments to follow later this month.

ATI demonstrated a test version of the Rage 128 GL chip running at half speed. Even this slowed-down chip delivered impressive performance. I think gamers in particular will appreciate the multi-leveled textures on surfaces and reflections now possible with the new chip. The Rage 128 also speeds up the calculation of 2D business graphics and DVD (digital video disc) operations.

The new chip leapfrogs Intel's i740 graphics chip, with benchmarked results 60 per cent faster for 3D graphics, according to ATI.

ATI will incorporate the two new chips in three graphics boards. The Rage Magnum ($445 list price) for workstations and the Rage Fury ($445) aimed at extreme gamers top the performance chart with the GL chip. The Xpert 128 ($295) uses the VR chip and is aimed at standard PC users who want improved 3D graphics and DVD performance.

The boards will be available in OEM (original equipment manufacturer) versions bundled with selected PCs in October. Retail boards you can add-on to your PC will be available in November. CW