ATI Technologies’ very own COO and President David Orton said in his speech at the Merrill Lynch Hardware Heaven Technology Conference that the company plans to release integrated core-logic with DirectX 9 graphics in the fourth quarter this year or in early 2004.

Talking about integrated chipsets, particularly about core-logic for mobile computers, Mr. Orton said that his company plans to continue moving integrated graphics with DirectX 8.1 support into mobile segment throughout the year, but also intends to bring DirectX 9.0-supporting integrated chipset in the fourth quarter 2003 or in 2004, probably in the first half of maybe even the first quarter.

There are no details about DirectX 9 integrated part from ATI at the moment. It would be very interesting to learn which graphics core and manufacturing process will ATI utilise for the next-generation IGP. RV350 (RADEON 9600) does not seem to be really small one for integration, however, if ATI manufactures the chip using 0.13 micron fabrication technology, it may be possible to utilise this graphics core. Given ATI’s commitment to Intel’s platforms and technologies, I would suppose that the chipset will also support PCI Express as well as DDR-II memory. If this has something to do with reality, do not expect the first DirectX 9-supporting RADEON IGP to come earlier than in late Q1 2004 or even in Q2 2004. It is possible that mobile version of the chipset without PCI Express and DDR-II memory will appear earlier than a product intended for desktops.

It is interesting to note that NVIDIA also has plans to bring its nForce with integrated NV3x core this year into the market (see this news-story).

Currently ATI’s market share among the integrated chipsets for notebooks is about 33% what seems to be an awesome result for the company that has been offering such chipsets for less than one year. On the other hand, there are no surprises here since the market is basically emerging and rapidly growing.

Mr. Orton also reiterated ATI’s plans to launch something interesting on the chipset front within next couple of months. We already know that ATI prepared to announce its code-named RS300 chipset at Computex Taipei 2003 in early June (see this news-story), but since it was cancelled recently, the formal launch of the core-logic will happen during another event.

ATI’s COO and President also told analysts at the Merrill Lynch Hardware Heaven Technology Conference that the RADEON 9600-series of chips produced using 0.13 micron fabrication process are now shipping in large commercial quantities.