The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has awarded a Technical and Engineering Emmy Award to AMD (NYSE:AMD) for the contributions made by one of its video graphics products this week.

At the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Sunnyvale Calif.-based firm accepted an award for the contributions to near and real-time shading effects its ATI Radeon 9700 line of products allows.

The advent of programmable shading was a watershed moment in computer graphics, said Bob Drebin, Chief Technical Officer, Graphics Products Group, AMD. For the first time artists could experiment with lighting and shading schemes in real time, he added.

AMD gained access to Canadian graphics chip maker ATI Technologies in July following its $5.4 billion acquisition.

ATI Radeon 9700 technology is commercially available.