Leading graphics company ATI Technologies announced that in 2004 ATI's Digital Television division shipped more than 5 million chips for various HDTV equipment, setting new record for the company. The firm also said recently signed contracts secured the company new market share heights on the DTV arena.

?ATI is providing consumer electronics manufacturers with the industry's best performing DTV and set-top chipsets. ATI's corporate commitment to research and development in digital television technologies is enabling our customers to deliver brilliant products while at the same time meeting the United States Federal Communications Commission mandated conversion to integrated digital reception,?said Daniel Eiref, director of marketing for DTV Products, ATI Technologies Inc.

During calendar 2004 Markham, Ontario-based ATI shipped 5 million chips for HD (high-definition) TVs and HD cable and terrestrial set-top boxes. ATI also announced market leadership in ATSC/OpenCable silicon solutions with an ATI-estimated 85% market share for THEATER and NXT demodulators and a 40% market share for XILLEON MPEG decoders and display processors.

ATI's NXT, THEATER and XILLEON chips enable consumer electronics manufacturers to create a wide variety of products that feature exceptional reception and video display performance, the company said. Manufacturers also have access to ATI's extensive software support and reference designs to help them bring to market unique products that conform to worldwide industry standards.

ATI's product family for digital TVs and set-top boxes includes:

• NXT2003/NXT2004/NXT2005 ?cost-effective VSB/QAM/OpenCable reception;
• THEATER 310/THEATER 313 ?one of the world's best performing VSB/QAM/OpenCable reception;
• XILLEON 210VC ?the only ATSC/OpenCable system-on-chip with integrated VSB and MPEG;
• XILLEON 226 ?the world's most popular and best performing dual high-definition MPEG decoder with integrated display processor.

Numerous leading manufacturers of HD TVs and HD set-top boxes, including such as Hitachi, JVC, Mitsubishi, Matsushita, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, Thomson and many others, currently use ATI chips. Given that US FCC requires all TV channels in the USA to converse to digital broadcast by 2007, ATI Technologies may continue to enjoy great demand on its DTV products.