The fan-cooled KONA XM is AJA's video I/O card for medical device developers who need low delay between video input, processing and output. It's a 4-lane PCIe 3.0 card with two full-size 12G-SDI BNC connections and two full-size HDMI 2.0 connections, each pair with one input and one output.

Built for medical devices

AJA designed KONA XM to sit at the heart of surgical and diagnostic equipment, and it's been tested to meet the IEC 60601-1-2 EMI/ESD standards required for medical device components. AJA recommends it as the video I/O for NVIDIA's IGX edge computing platform, and it works with NVIDIA Holoscan for real-time, AI-driven overlays on live video.

Low latency by design

Its DMA architecture supports GPUDirect RDMA, so video passes directly between host memory and hardware accelerators without relying on local FPGA buffers. AJA quotes a delay as low as sub-frame on processed video output.

Formats and signals

KONA XM captures and plays back 4K and UltraHD in YCbCr 4:2:2 10-bit up to 2160p60 and RGB 4:4:4 12-bit up to 2160p30, as well as 2K, HD and SD, and can handle two channels of 4K at 60p. HDMI supports HLG and HDR10. SDI carries VPID signalling for SDR and HDR, and the card has on-board hardware for 16 channels of embedded SDI audio. Audio is controlled by firmware, and AJA's SDK Support advises on audio functionality. Graphics up to 4K/UltraHD can be keyed over video with an alpha channel.

Development and cooling

Developers work with it through the AJA SDK, on Windows (11 and 10) or Linux (Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and 22.04; Rocky 8.5 and 9.1). An in-firmware microcontroller runs select code before the host system fully boots. This version has a fan rated at 33.1 dBA and measures 247.7 x 15.9 x 98.6 mm with a 127 mm bracket. AJA covers it with a three-year warranty.