AMD Resurrects the ATI All-In-Wonder

by Marco Chiappetta — Thursday, June 26, 2008, 12:01 AM EDT

Back as far as August 2006, news had broke that AMD planned to discontinue the ATI All-In-Wonder series of graphics cards. If you're unfamiliar with them, All-In-Wonders combined a standard GPU with extensive VIVO and TV-Tuning functionality on a single board.

For most of their lifespan, All-In-Wonders were "the" all in one (pardon the pun) cards to own. But once Windows Vista hit, they lost much of their luster due to incompatibilities with Vista's media center software and the tuning / capture devices on the cards. And after AMD stopped making them, the All-In-Wonder just sort of faded into oblivion.

Say Hello To The ATI All-In-Wonder HD

It turns out that AMD wasn't quite ready to completely kill off the All-In-Wonder though. We have learned that AMD is planning to release an updated model complete with HD support, that will be available for pre-order at Best Buy very soon. The aptly named ATI All-In-Wonder HD essentially combines the functionality of a standalone TV Wonder 650 with a Radeon HD 3650 GPU. Cards will sport a hardware MPEG-2 encoder, native HDMI connections along with DVI outputs, composite video inputs and outputs, component outputs, and support OTA HD, Clear QAM digital cable TB tuning (some of the connectors are on a separate daughterboard that connects via a small ribbon cable). Of course, all of the features inherent to the Radeon HD 3650 GPU will be exposed as well, as will the features of the ATI Theater 650 chip. We should also note that unlike previous AIW cards, this new version will be fully compatible with Windows Vista.

The GPU clock on the card is reportedly 725MHz and it will be coupled to 600MHz RAM, which should make the ATI All-In-Wonder HD a bit faster than a reference Radeon HD 3650. And cards will include the ATI Avivo Video Converter as part of the Catalyst Media Center software, in addition to the AMD Live Explorer.

Tags: AMD, ATI, ECT, AM

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com