SDI Device Switching Scalability – Getting More Ports, Increased Control, and Higher Signal Integrity

Creating SDI devices with more ports requires a more effective crosspoint switching components. Juan Garza from Vitesse explained to me at the NAB trade show that TV producers and broadcasters use SDI for many applications such as real time and remote viewing on each input and the need for more advanced SDI devices is increasing. SDI crosspoint devices and systems need new monitoring, routing, and signal integrity capabilities. To enable higher capacity SDI switching capability, Vitesee has devices that can provide data rates up to 11 Gbps. They include many programmable features including signal equalization, output drive levels, power-down control for unused channels, and more. The input and output lines in the chip include terminations which reduces the device cost by eliminating additional components. The chips include added routing, switching, and signal integrity processing which enables them to be used in telecommunication and Ethernet applications. The switching core is non-blocking and it can provide protocol-transparent transmission allowing each channel to run independently.