ATI Mach series


The ATI Mach line was a series of 2D graphics accelerators for personal computers developed by ATI Technologies. It became an extension to the ATI Wonder series of cards. The first chip in the series was the ATI Mach8. It was essentially a clone of the IBM 8514/A with a few notable extensions such as Crystal fonts. Being one of the first graphics accelerator chips on the market, the Mach8 did not have an integrated VGA core. In order to use the first Mach8 coprocessor cards, a separate VGA card was required. This increased the cost of ownership as one had to purchase two rather than one expansion card for graphics. A temporary solution was presented with the ATI Graphics Ultra/Vantage cards, which combined an ATI 8514 Ultra and VGA Wonder+ into a single card. The Mach32 chip was the follow-up to the Mach8, which finally featured an integrated VGA core, true colour support and a 64-bit datapath to internal memory.

Models

Mach 8

Released: 1990
The Mach 8 chip was used on the following ATI products:
Released: 1992
The Mach 32 chip was used on the following ATI products:
Released: 1994
The Mach 64 chip was used on the following ATI products:
Mach64 GX Family:
Mach64 CT Family:
Mach64 VT Family:
Mach64 GT Family:
Mach64 GT-B Family:
Important Note: The 3D Rage and 3D Rage II chips were also known as Mach64 GT and Mach64 GT-B respectively. The Mach64 moniker was eliminated with introduction of the 3D Rage Pro.