ATI's New RS700 Detailed

DirectX 10 and HDCP compliance without external transmitter

It was previously reported RS600 would integrate a Radeon X700 class graphics core capable of AVIVO video processing and HDCP. More details have been unveiled that shows HDCP support will be integrated into the graphics core and not require an external decoding key. RS600 will also have high definition audio support integrated into the north bridge to simultaneously output video and multi-channel audio via a single HDMI cable. As with the previous Radeon Xpress 200 integrated graphics chipsets, the RS600 is Windows Vista ready with support for Aero Glass.

Since the RS600 uses a Radeon X700 derived graphics core it lacks support for DirectX 9c and Shader Model 3.0. Roadmaps show ATI will skip DirectX 9c support for its integrated graphics core and instead jump to DirectX 10. The next generation RS700 will have Shader Model 4.0, unified shaders, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD hardware decoding acceleration. RS700 will be built on a 65nm fabrication power for lower power consumption. Its expected RS700 will be a drop in replacement for RS600 as it will be pin compatible. Pin compatibility will simplify engineering times for RS700 as motherboard manufacturers can use the same layout for RS600 and RS700.

Availability is expected around August-September for RS600 and mid-2007 for RS700. Pricing is unknown but expect RS600 and/or RS700 boards to cost south of $100.