ATI Unveils Smartshader Technology

ATI Technologies has unveiled its new Smartshader technology, a next-generation graphics architecture that ATI says is designed to narrow the gap in visual quality between the "big screen" and the "computer screen". Incorporating suggestions from leading 3D application developers and researchers, ATI collaborated with Microsoft Corporation to improve the versatility, efficiency and usability of the existing Microsoft DirectX 8.0 Pixel Shader and Vertex Shader specifications. The results of these efforts are available to developers in both DirectX 8.1 and Open GL. Smartshader technology incorporates advances in the area of Pixel Shaders, which are small programs that execute on every pixel rendered to the display device allowing developers to design a wider range of graphical effects with fewer operations. It 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.