Yesterday GPU firm ATI demonstrated functioning DirectX 11 hardware in a presentation to press and execs at Computex in Taipei, Taiwan.

Big red tapped a demo that showcased hardware tessellation, a headlining feature of DirectX 11 that allows for lower GPU overhead when rendering complex 3D objects. Tessellation technology, present on ATI GPUs since the Radeon HD 2000-series, reduces the complexity of rendering an object’s details as it moves about a scene. DirectX 11 tessellation technology, if harnessed, could lead to significantly increased object detail in 3D scenes with a minimal performance impact.

ATI also demonstrated a technology in DirectX 11 known as “compute shader” which uses the GPU to process workloads traditionally allocated to the CPU. ATI’s preview of the technology used the GPU to process the AI of small characters taking the path of least resistance as they marched across rugged terrain.

Compute shader is essentially the formalization of the Stream Processing and CUDA initiatives from ATI and NVIDIA which use the GPU for massively-parallel general purpose applications. Standardizing a GPGPU model may make for more prevalent and consistent physics engines, AI, and other tasks the CPU was once responsible for.

It is strongly suspected that the GPU used to display this content was none other than the RV8xx core rumored to be at the heart of the ATI Radeon HD 5800-series coming this fall to coincide with the Windows 7 launch.