Ushering in a new era of photo-realism to the handheld development community, the new OpenGL ES 2.0 standard promises to revolutionize the handheld segment.

Having led the industry with its Imageon technology, ATI Technologies Inc. (TSX:ATY, NASDAQ:ATYT) will be working closely with developers to maximize the functionality of its hardware with this new API. With the introduction of programmable shaders in OpenGL ES 2.0, the industry is poised for an explosion of compelling new content much like was developed following the introduction of kind of functionality for the PC. By continuing to work in tandem with developers ATI is ensuring that end users can experience all that Imageon technology has to offer in image quality, performance and realism.

?As multimedia accelerators for handheld devices have become increasingly powerful, more and more information and work can be processed while dissipating a minimum amount of power,? said Neal Robison, Director, ISV Relations, ATI. ?The beauty of OpenGL ES is that by leveraging the graphics processor, developers can have the flexibility of programming their own shaders to create the kinds of effects that until now end users could only experience on their PCs.?

?We are excited about what the OpenGL ES 2.0 standard brings to commercial handheld devices and look forward to working together with ATI on the new programmable shader APIs,? says Michael Nakagaki, Project Manager of Bandai America Inc. ?The potential of these new APIs coupled with the hardware-based performance that we are expecting to see on commercial devices will make for a very compelling 3D game market for mobile phones.?

"As a long time supporter of OpenGL ES, Fathammer welcomes the new OpenGL ES 2.0 standard. The programmable shaders that OpenGL ES 2.0 introduces give game developers a whole new level of control of the rendering pipeline and is an important step in the continued evolution of mobile 3D graphics. Fathammer is delighted to join ATI in support for this important mobile graphics standard,? said Petrus Lundqvist, CTO, Fathammer.

"Having provided the industry with benchmarking applications that objectively and reliably measure and compare performance of OpenGL ES 1.0 graphics implementations, Futuremark is committed to continue working with ATI and our other partners to address OpenGL ES 2.0. We look forward to continuing our great relationship with members of our Benchmark Development Program, including ATI, as we initiate preparing industry standard tests for OpenGL ES 2.0," said Tero Sarkkinen, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Futuremark.

?We are looking forward to the advances that OpenGL ES will contribute to the mobile gaming industry,? said Michel Guillemot, president, Gameloft. ?At Gameloft we continually push ourselves to create the most cutting edge games using the latest technology. We are excited to experience the new possibilities that ATI?s OpenGL ES will provide.?

"OpenGL ES 2.0 is the best graphics platform available and Hudson is embracing it today," explained John Greiner, President, Hudson Entertainment. "The programmable shaders, yet another superb feature, are especially helpful for cutting edge weather effects or water animations.?