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CrossFire is the name of ATI's technology supporting dual-cards graphics solutions and the technology is comparable to Nvidia's SLI (Scalable Link Interface) solution, in that two PCI Express (PCIe) graphics cards are supported through the use of two PCIe x8 connections.

However, unlike SLI, the ATI solution does not require any connector board between the two graphics cards. In addition, the platform requires that only one CrossFire edition graphics card be used in the dual-card solution, with the company initially offering X800 or X850 options for the CrossFire cards.

For the partner card, ATI supports a wide range of Radeon-powered boards already on the market, from its Radeon X800 and X850 family, respectively, the company stated.

The two boards do not necessarily need to have the same amount of memory on-board as well, as the solution will still work, but with some limitations, the sources stated.

According to ATI, CrossFire will support three types of rendering modes, called SuperTiling, Scissor and Alternate Frame Rendering. The latter two modes are supported by the OpenGL API, with all three being supported by the Direct3D API, ATI said. All rendering modes are 'software-transparent', according to ATI, meaning they do not require special support from game developers.

ATI claims its technology outperforms Nvidia's SLI solution by more than 10 per cent on 3DMark2005 and by more than 30 per cent on some games such as Splinter Cell CT and NFS Underground 2.

CrossFire-enabled solutions will target enthusiasts, ATI stated. The Intel edition of the chipset supports dual-channel memory (DDR or DDR2, up to DDR2-800, depending on motherboards), and both parts have four PCIe x1 connections on the northbridge and support an x2 or x4 PCIe link as the northbridge-to-southbridge interconnect. Seven motherboard vendors were mentioned by ATI as Crossfire partners (Asustek, Gigabyte, MSI, ECS, DFI, Sapphire and Tul), with most of them also producing CrossFire edition graphics cards.

Motherboards supporting the CrossFire platform are expected to cost in the $100 range, and when the company moves to 110nm production, its entry level Radeon Xpress 200 series motherboards should be priced in the $50 range, the sources pointed out.

ATI will be making a strong push with its integrated chipset solutions over the next three months, and the company expects to double its monthly chipset shipments in that time, the sources added.