ATI Mach series

Last updated
ATI Mach series
Release date1990;33 years ago (1990)
CodenameMach
Cards
Entry-levelMach 8
Mid-rangeMach 32
High-endMach 64
History
Predecessor Wonder series
Successor Rage series
Support status
Unsupported

The ATI Mach line was a series of 2D graphics accelerators for personal computers developed by ATI Technologies. It became an extension (and eventual successor) to the ATI Wonder series of cards. The first chip in the series was the ATI Mach8. It was essentially a clone of the IBM 8514/A with a few notable extensions such as Crystal fonts. Being one of the first graphics accelerator chips on the market, the Mach8 did not have an integrated VGA core. In order to use the first Mach8 coprocessor cards, a separate VGA card was required. This increased the cost of ownership as one had to purchase two rather than one expansion card for graphics. A temporary solution was presented with the ATI Graphics Ultra/Vantage cards, which combined an ATI 8514 Ultra and VGA Wonder+ into a single card (though using discrete ICs). The Mach32 chip was the follow-up to the Mach8, which finally featured an integrated VGA core, true colour support and a 64-bit datapath to internal memory.

Contents

Models

Mach 8

Released: 1990

ATI Graphics Ultra ISA (Mach8 + VGA) Mach8isa.jpg
ATI Graphics Ultra ISA (Mach8 + VGA)

The Mach 8 chip was used on the following ATI products:

Mach 32

Released: 1992

The Mach 32 chip was used on the following ATI products:

Mach 64

Graphics Pro Turbo VLB (Mach64GX) Mach64gx.jpg
Graphics Pro Turbo VLB (Mach64GX)
Die shot of the Mach64 GT-B ATI@500nm@Fixed-pipeline@Mach64 GT-B@3D RAGE II@215GT2CB12 CTTEBRIL-00 J651DNM A22Pj9648 MALTA Stack-DSC04551-DSC04577 - ZS-retouched (29770605323).jpg
Die shot of the Mach64 GT-B

Released: 1994

The Mach 64 chip was used on the following ATI products:

Mach64 GX Family:

Mach64 CT Family:

Mach64 VT Family:

Mach64 GT Family:

Mach64 GT-B Family:

The 3D Rage and 3D Rage II chips were also known as Mach64 GT and Mach64 GT-B respectively. The Mach64 moniker was eliminated with introduction of the 3D Rage Pro.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM 8514</span> IBM graphics card and computer display standard

IBM 8514 is a graphics card manufactured by IBM and introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of personal computers in 1987. It supports a display resolution of 1024 × 768 pixels with 256 colors at 43.5 Hz (interlaced), or 640 × 480 at 60 Hz (non-interlaced). 8514 usually refers to the display controller hardware. However, IBM sold the companion CRT monitor which carries the same designation, 8514.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ATI Technologies</span> Canadian technology corporation

ATI Technologies Inc., commonly called ATI, was a Canadian semiconductor technology corporation based in Markham, Ontario, that specialized in the development of graphics processing units and chipsets. Founded in 1985, the company listed publicly in 1993 and was acquired by AMD in 2006. As a major fabrication-less or fabless semiconductor company, ATI conducted research and development in-house and outsourced the manufacturing and assembly of its products. With the decline and eventual bankruptcy of 3dfx in 2000, ATI and its chief rival Nvidia emerged as the two dominant players in the graphics processors industry, eventually forcing other manufacturers into niche roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RIVA 128</span> Graphics Chip by Nvidia

Released in August 1997 by Nvidia, the RIVA 128, or "NV3", was one of the first consumer graphics processing units to integrate 3D acceleration in addition to traditional 2D and video acceleration. Its name is an acronym for Real-time Interactive Video and Animation accelerator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RIVA TNT2</span> Graphics Chip by Nvidia

The RIVA TNT2 is a graphics processing unit manufactured by Nvidia starting in early 1999. The chip is codenamed "NV5" because it is the 5th graphics chip design by Nvidia, succeeding the RIVA TNT (NV4). RIVA is an acronym for Real-time Interactive Video and Animation accelerator. The "TNT" suffix refers to the chip's ability to work on two texels at once. Nvidia removed RIVA from the name later in the chip's lifetime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GeForce 6 series</span> Series of GPUs by Nvidia

The GeForce 6 series is Nvidia's sixth generation of GeForce graphic processing units. Launched on April 14, 2004, the GeForce 6 family introduced PureVideo post-processing for video, SLI technology, and Shader Model 3.0 support.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">S3 ViRGE</span>

The S3 ViRGE (Video and Rendering Graphics Engine) graphics chipset was one of the first 2D/3D accelerators designed for the mass market.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tseng Labs</span>

Tseng Laboratories, Inc. was a maker of graphics chips and controllers for IBM PC compatibles, based in Newtown, Pennsylvania, and founded by Jack Hsiao Nan Tseng.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">S3 Graphics</span> U.S.-based computer graphics company

S3 Graphics, Ltd. was an American computer graphics company. The company sold the Trio, ViRGE, Savage, and Chrome series of graphics processors. Struggling against competition from 3dfx Interactive, ATI and Nvidia, it merged with hardware manufacturer Diamond Multimedia in 1999. The resulting company renamed itself to SONICblue Incorporated, and, two years later, the graphics portion was spun off into a new joint effort with VIA Technologies. The new company focused on the mobile graphics market. VIA Technologies' stake in S3 Graphics was purchased by HTC in 2011.

Cirrus Logic Inc. is an American fabless semiconductor supplier that specializes in analog, mixed-signal, and audio DSP integrated circuits (ICs). Since 1998, the company's headquarters have been in Austin, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oak Technology</span> American semiconductor company

Oak Technology (OAKT) was an American supplier of semiconductor chips for sound cards, graphics cards and optical storage devices such as CD-ROM, CD-RW and DVD. It achieved success with optical storage chips and its stock price increased substantially around the time of the tech bubble in 2000. After falling on hard times, in 2003 it was acquired by Zoran Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rendition, Inc.</span>

Rendition, Inc., was a maker of 3D computer graphics chipsets in the mid to late 1990s. They were known for products such as the Vérité 1000 and Vérité 2x00 and for being one of the first 3D chipset makers to directly work with Quake developer John Carmack to make a hardware-accelerated version of the game (vQuake). Rendition's major competitor at the time was 3Dfx. Their proprietary rendering APIs were Speedy3D and RRedline.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ATI Rage series</span> Series of video cards

The ATI Rage is a series of graphics chipsets developed by ATI Technologies offering graphical user interface (GUI) 2D acceleration, video acceleration, and 3D acceleration developed by ATI Technologies. It is the successor to the ATI Mach series of 2D accelerators.

The G400 is a video card made by Matrox, released in September 1999. The graphics processor contains a 2D GUI, video, and Direct3D 6.0 3D accelerator. Codenamed "Toucan", it was a more powerful and refined version of its predecessor, the G200.

GDDR4 SDRAM, an abbreviation for Graphics Double Data Rate 4 Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory, is a type of graphics card memory (SGRAM) specified by the JEDEC Semiconductor Memory Standard. It is a rival medium to Rambus's XDR DRAM. GDDR4 is based on DDR3 SDRAM technology and was intended to replace the DDR2-based GDDR3, but it ended up being replaced by GDDR5 within a year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matrox G200</span>

The G200 is a 2D, 3D, and video accelerator chip for personal computers designed by Matrox. It was released in 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">S3 Trio</span> Computer graphics hardware

The S3 Trio range were popular video cards for personal computers and were S3's first fully integrated graphics accelerators. As the name implies, three previously separate components were now included in the same ASIC: the graphics core, RAMDAC and clock generator. The increased integration allowed a graphics card to be simpler than before and thus cheaper to produce.

The Mystique and Mystique 220 were 2D, 3D, and video accelerator cards for personal computers designed by Matrox, using the VGA connector. The original Mystique was introduced in 1996, with the slightly upgraded Mystique 220 having been released in 1997.

The ATI Wonder series represents some of the first video card add-on products for IBM Personal Computers and compatibles introduced by ATI Technologies in the mid to late 1980s. These cards were unique at the time as they offered the end user a considerable amount of value by combining support for multiple graphics standards into a single card. The VGA Wonder series added additional value with the inclusion of a bus mouse port, which normally required the installation of a dedicated Microsoft Mouse adapter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voodoo2</span> Series of Graphics Cards

The Voodoo2 is a set of three specialized 3D graphics chips on a single chipset setup, made by 3dfx. It was released in February 1998 as a replacement for the original Voodoo Graphics chipset. The card runs at a chipset clock rate of 90 MHz and uses 100 MHz EDO DRAM, and is available for the PCI interface. The Voodoo2 comes in two models, one with 8 MB RAM and one with 12 MB RAM. The 8 MB card has 2 MB of memory per texture mapping unit (TMU) vs. 4 MB on the 12 MB model. The 4 MB framebuffer on both cards support a maximum screen resolution of 800 × 600, while the increased texture memory on the 12 MB card allows more detailed textures. Some boards with 8 MB can be upgraded to 12 MB with an additional daughter board.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GDDR3 SDRAM</span> Type of graphics card memory

GDDR3 SDRAM is a type of DDR SDRAM specialized for graphics processing units (GPUs) offering less access latency and greater device bandwidths. Its specification was developed by ATI Technologies in collaboration with DRAM vendors including Elpida Memory, Hynix Semiconductor, Infineon and Micron. It was later adopted as a JEDEC standard.