ATI, graphics business unit of Advanced Micro Devices, has demonstrated its dual-chip flagship product code-named Hemlock that features two ATI Radeon HD 5800-series graphics processing units.

Even though the flagship graphics solution has very similar design with its single-chip brother, ATI Radeon HD 5870 X2 graphics board seems to be even longer than the original Radeon HD 5870, which means that it will hardly fit into non-enthusiast PC cases. The device also uses improved cooling system with higher number of exhaust openings. Besides, instead of two six-pin PCI Express power connectors, the dual-chip graphics card utilizes one six-pin and one eight-pin PCI Express power connectors.

ATI Radeon HD 5870 X2 had two dual-link DVI-I connectors located on the backside of the card. Besides, it is likely that the device also supports HDMI and DisplayPort output. Later this year ATI also plans to release ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity Edition graphics board that will support up to six monitors. The company yet has to confirm whether the Eyefinity graphics board features two graphics processors.

At present specifications of code-named Hemlock are unclear, which is logical, as the product is unlikely to hit the market in less than a month time frame.

The images of the graphics board first appeared on a Chinese-language web-site and were later republished in Xtremesystems.org's forums.

Tags: ATI, AMD, Radeon, Hemlock, 40nm