ATI launches video chip for set-tops

ATI Technologies is aiming for the set-top market with the launch what it is hailing as the industry's first single-chip video-in/TV-out display controller.

ATI's new RageTheater chip is designed to deliver high-quality, cost-effective video decoding and encoding capabilities for set-tops and multimedia PCs. The chip also supports 5.1 Dolby Digital channels or two-channel PCM output.

ATI engineers say that the chip features special noise-reduction circuitry that eliminates high-frequency noise. The ATI RageTheater chip accepts S-Video and composite inputs in NTSC, PAL and SECAM. Its TV-out capability also supports composite, S-Video and SCART-RBG, NTSC and PAL standards.

The report is available at www.eetimes.com .