ATI, graphics business unit of Advanced Micro Devices, has not demonstrated any new graphics processors at Computex Taipei 2010, even behind closed doors, according to unofficial information. Nevertheless, there are media reports that ATI’s next-generation lineup code-named Southern Islands will still be released in 2010.

Earlier this year AMD’s chief executive already confirmed plans to refresh the lineup of ATI Radeon graphics processing units (GPUs) with new offerings by the end of calendar 2010; on the other hand, the absence of members of Southern Islands family at Computex naturally leads to assumption that the new chips are not yet ready to be shown to the public. Chips that cannot be demonstrated in early June naturally do not come out during back-to-school (BTS) season, a crucial timeframe for computer makers and chipmakers.

But according to a news-story published by Computer Base web-site, ATI has a clear intention to release its Southern Islands this year and sometimes in the autumn, not winter. The SI family will offer higher performance compared to currently available ATI Radeon HD 5000 “Evergreen” line, but will hardly be considerably more advanced in terms of feature-set. It is reported that designers of the new GPUs concentrated mostly on improving efficiency, but not on building something completely new from scratch.

At present AMD’s graphics business unit feels itself quite comfortable since the arch-rival Nvidia Corp. still has to start offering its GeForce 4-series “Fermi” in the mainstream and entry-level market segments. But ATI does not exactly has time to stand still and should come out with some improved offerings for the BTS season so to not allow Nvidia to score deals with PC makers with their new products.

ATI did not comment on the news-story.

Tags: ATI, AMD, Radeon, Southern Islands, 40nm