While ATI Technologies is shipping its new RADEON X700 PRO graphics processor, in order to get sufficient quantities of the more powerful RADEON X700 XT version of the chip, the Markham, Ontario-based developer of graphics processors needs a new revision of the RADEON X700 VPU.

A source close to ATI Technologies said that the company will only rate A2 revision of its code-named RV410 graphics processor to run at 475MHz speeds, which corresponds to ATI’s RADEON X700 XT model. The initial, revision A1, batch of the X700 chips is expected to be rated to operate at 420MHz, which is speed of the RADEON X700 PRO flavour.

Designers of chips typically release a number of processors’ revisions during a products live. Usually the A0 revision is used for testing, while the A1 goes to production. A2 revisions are typically created with attempt to stabilize and increase yields, the number of chips that can be commercially sold.

People familiar with the plans of ATI Technologies said the company ships the RADEON X700 PRO visual processing units now. Some graphics cards makers have already started to make RADEON X700 PRO add-in cards, others are likely to start in days, sources indicate.

The RADEON X700 graphics processor aka RV410 is made using 0.11 micron process technology at TSMC and consists of 110 million of transistors. The chip has 8 pixel pipelines and 6 vertex pipelines, yielding more complex specifications compared to previous mainstream visual processing units by ATI Technologies. The RADEON X700-series supports innovative technologies found in the RADEON X800 family of visual processing units unveiled earlier this year, such as Shader Model 2.0b and 3Dc.

Officials for ATI Technologies did not comment on the story.