Graphics outfit ATI has decided it's time to revamp its range of graphics offerings. In this exclusive interview with the team's Worldwide Marketing Manager, Robert Jamieson we find out why.

ITEXAMINER - Why have you changed the brand name of FireGL and FireMV?

Robert Jamieson - ATI FireGL has had a long association with OpenGL applications. Part of the name is similar to ATI FireGL’s and historically most professional applications were OpenGL based. In the future it is likely that some professional applications will have DX graphic engines. Therefore a brand that does not highlight support for one more than the other is most appropriate. Some people do not realise FireGL currently has excellent support for DX because the name implies association with just OpenGL. Changing ATI FireMV to ATI FirePro brings brand simplification. The core attributes of performance, reliability and certification associated with ATI FirePro apply to ATI FireMV.

ITEXAMINER - What’s new about ATI FirePro?

Robert Jamieson - The FirePro range of graphic cards incorporate enhanced chip level hardware and software drivers to address the needs of a professional audience. Drivers are tuned to deliver increased performance with OpenGL. Applications such as Dassault’s Catia TM and Autodesk’s Maya TM, which benefit from VBO support, as well as Direct X applications such as Autodesk’s 3ds Max TM. ATI FirePro cards like their ATI FireGL and ATI FireMV predecessors have greater long shader support.

ITEXAMINER - What is a VBO and why is it important?

Robert Jamieson - VBO is a Vertex Buffer Object and is a way for the graphics card to store the geometry on the card without having to push the geometry back down the bus to the CPU to calculate changes. It’s important because it increases the performance of rotations, for example, by over 5 times with larger models. No creative designer likes waiting for their system to update the screen so this greatly increases their productivity.

ITEXAMINER - What’s the future direction of ATI FirePro?

Robert Jamieson - As people want to manipulate more 3D content on screen with greater accuracy I would expect greater use of shaders. A shader is programming code which is executed in GPU cycles. These only bring benefit when software applications draw upon their use, which ATI FirePro does by having a long shader support and drivers expose this functionality to professional applications. X