ATI's plans to add HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) support to future chipset and graphics card products took a step closer to fruition yesterday when the company announced it has licensed HDMI technology from Analogix.

Neither firm disclosed the terms of the deal, which comes almost a month after ATI showed an upcoming Radeon Xpress chipset equipped with HDMI connectors. It demo'd the technology at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

HDMI is a standard connector for linking up HD-oriented computing and consumer electronics kit, providing sufficient bandwidth for the transmission of HD content - plus room to support the HDCP (High Definition Content Protection) DRM scheme.

Last week, ATI CEO Dave Orton said the company was looking to step up its acquisition programme.

"We do about an acquisition a year and they tend to be 30 to 80 people, technology-based acquisitions. Even though we are looking to accelerate (mergers and acquisitions), we are also looking to make sure we are prudent about it," he told the Reuters newsagency.

"We’ve got an active funnel, but there's nothing major pending." ®