ATI Technologies is hiring some new engineers for its product code-named R600 that is not even likely to appear on the horizon really soon. The move indicates growing aggressiveness in the graphics processors market as well as the belief of the Markham, Ontario-based company in the further growth of the R&D budget that is indissolubly connected with the firm’s sales.

On Sunday, the 25^th of April, 2004, The Inquirer web-site reported about the intention of ATI Technologies to hire a team leader to manage Direct 3D driver component quality at its Marlboro plant in the USA. As part of her or his responsibilities, the manager is expected to serve as the primary point of contact within ATI for component quality problems for the Direct 3D driver for the R600 product, according to the report that cited ATI’s official web-site.

However, on Monday, the 25^th of April, 2004, ATI Technologies replaced the “R600 code-name” with “next generation products” definition.

While the destiny as well as timeframes for the product code-named R600 are not clear, the advertising indicates that the works on the R600 are underway. Typically it takes graphics company ATI Technologies some 18-24 month to replace one micro-architecture for graphics processors with another, ATI Technologies’ COO indicated in the first half of 2004.

ATI Technologies’ code-named R420 visual processing unit aka RADEON X800 expected to be unleashed shortly is something that rely on the architecture used in the RADEON 9800/9700-series of graphics processors, according to the preliminary information. The followers for the R420, such as the code-named R500 product are expected to bring Shader Model 3.0 or Shader Model 4.0 functionality. It is not clear what new the R600 VPU is supposed to bring.