At IBC 2011, 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.

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.

"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," said Sandeep Gupte, general manager of professional graphics at AMD

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), AMD's 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 via APIs exposed in the AMD FirePro SDI-Link software developer kit.

The AMD FirePro V7900 SDI professional graphics card is slated for availability in October 2011 for US $2499 MSRP.