Building on its computer architecture technology designed for rocket scientists, SGI has launched its new Prism open IT platform, which is intended to improve digital workflows for post-production professionals as they transition from analog to digital IT-based facilities, and from SD to HD, 2K and 4K resolution material. The new platform integrates 64-bit Intel Itanium 2 processors; 64-bit Linux scalability, which is also found in SGI Altix high-performance server products; and scalable ATI graphics processors (GPUs) for I/O capability to handle multiple ingest channels and multiple uncompressed HD and 2K streams or even 4K for digital cinema mastering and digital intermediates. Prism will be available in the second half of this year. Systems with 2-8 processors and 2-4 GPUs start at under $30,000. www.sgi.com