AMD unveiled AMD FirePro SDI-Link to address the market for real-time, GPU-accelerated post production and broadcast pipelines requiring Serial Digital Interface (SDI) input and output. AMD FirePro SDI-Link was announced with support from the premier players in the broadcast technology market: AJA, Bluefish444, Blackmagic Design, DELTACAST, DVS and Matrox. Targeting manufacturers, technology integrators and software developers, AMD FirePro SDI-Link allows for the design of fully featured SDI- and GPU-based solutions with ultra-low latency between select AMD professional graphics cards and third party SDI input/output products.

“Integrators in the broadcast and real-time video production market can now benefit from the latest advances in GPU acceleration,” said Sandeep Gupte, general manager of professional graphics at AMD. “Solutions built around AMD FirePro SDI-Link, with the support from broadcast technology leaders, are able to simultaneously solve the two key challenges facing video pipeline solution providers today:  the need for flexible SDI input and output capabilities, and the requirement for real-time GPU-SDI communication in an integrated solution.” 

By leveraging the combined decades of SDI-related experience from AMD’s technology collaborators, along with the new AMD DirectGMA technology that allows SDI I/O products and select professional graphics cards such as the new AMD FirePro™ V7900 SDI to communicate directly over PCI Express^® (PCIe), customers can build solutions for virtual sets, professional video production/post-production, on-air motion graphics, on-set 3D VFX, and other scenarios. All of this can be accomplished with ease via APIs exposed in the AMD FirePro SDI-Link software developer kit, allowing the delivery of new capabilities and feature sets with never-before-seen flexibility and cost-effectiveness.

“The video broadcast market has been seeking a reliable, quality solution for some time,” said Jon Peddie, president, Jon Peddie Research. “AMD has upped the ante when it comes to the video marketplace by engaging with the top six industry leaders in this space. Kudos to AMD for tackling another market, backed by technology leadership.”

AMD FirePro SDI-Link is supported by the following companies:

“One of the most important ways we can support our customers is by providing them with accelerated workflows to boost their productivity,” said Nick Rashby, President, AJA Video Systems. “AMD FirePro SDI-Link does just that, allowing AJA customers to benefit from both GPU-based and SDI solutions using AMD FirePro professional graphics and AJA's video I/O products.”

“Blackmagic Design is looking forward to adding integration between our products and the AMD FirePro SDI-Link,” said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. “By supporting AMD FirePro SDI-Link, our developers will see a revolution in performance combined with extremely low latency when building intense graphics based video solutions using Blackmagic Design desktop video products and AMD graphic cards. This will be perfect for broadcasters working in areas such as weather, live news and 3D virtual sets, where high performance graphics and extremely low processing latencies are critical."

“Bluefish444 customers have been demanding this type of collaboration between Bluefish444 and AMD for years,” said Craige Mott, managing director of Bluefish444. “Until the advent of low latency transfer between our devices, Bluefish444 customers had to compromise on the amount and quality of real-time accelerated graphics they could SDI I/O using Epoch video cards. Now, between Bluefish444 and AMD we can offer the highest quality SDI I/O and the highest quality GPU accelerated graphics, all at an ultra-low latency transfer between our respective products.”

"With the support of AMD FirePro SDI-Link, DELTACAST answers to a typical requirement of our OEM customers", said Christian Dutilleux, CEO of DELTACAST, "And the most important for them is that we provide a built-in solution, elegantly integrated within the worshipped VideoMasterHD SDK, and certified by both AMD and DELTACAST. Thanks to the ultra-low-latency model of the AMD DirectGMA technology, developers now benefit from the incredible processing power of the professional AMD FirePro GPUs, and from the robustness and accuracy of the DELTACAST SDI multi-channel devices, to create stunning on-air graphics applications.”

"We are very excited to team up with AMD to offer developers even more options for their high-end broadcast and post production solutions,” said Jürgen Heger, Senior Product Manager at DVS. “The combination of the new AMD FirePro SDI-Link with DVS's Atomix family of video boards ensures an easy and low latency integration of DVS's reliable SDI input and output capabilities with the GPU power of AMD FirePro SDI graphics cards.”   

“Matrox DSX Developer Products are renowned among broadcast equipment manufacturers for high performance I/O hardware, a comprehensive SDK, and outstanding applications engineering support,” said Albert Cieri, Senior Director of Sales and Marketing, Matrox. “Our collaboration with AMD on the new AMD FirePro SDI-Link adds tight GPU integration which will further enhance our customer’s broadcast graphics system performance.”

The AMD FirePro V7900 SDI professional graphics card represents a number of firsts for AMD:

• First AMD FirePro professional graphics card to support AMD FirePro SDI-Link and planned certified compatibility (currently in development) with all five leading manufacturers providing PCIe cards offering advanced SDI video signal I/O capabilities
• First AMD FirePro professional graphics card designed specifically to address real-time professional video and broadcast graphics pipelines while delivering the same industry-leading GPU performance as the other offerings in AMD’s FirePro professional graphics line up
• First to leverage AMD’s exclusive AMD DirectGMA technology to help ensure system-level, low-latency synchronized data transfer between the AMD FirePro professional graphics and 3^rd-party devices over the PCIe bus
• The AMD FirePro V7900 SDI professional graphics card is slated for availability in October 2011 for US $2499 MSRP.

AMD FirePro SDI-Link and AMD FirePro professional graphics are on display with industry leaders at IBC 2011 in stand 7.H35 in hall 7.  Software vendors and solution providers demonstrating their use of AMD FirePro SDI-Link include: Drastic Technologies, eyeon Software, Tweak Software and Virtual Spectator.  Other technology providers demonstrating at AMD’s stand include Ventuz and VizRT.