AMD's new FirePro S7150 and S7150 x2 server GPUs, announced today, boost graphics processing on remote desktops with virtual GPUs. The new GPUs, which sit in servers, can deliver "virtualized GPUs" to client devices and remote desktops. A virtual GPU mimics the functionality of a GPU on local hardware, and users can run graphics, engineering or even VR applications on virtual desktops.

AMD MxGPU technology promises to bring a consistent performance and enhanced security across virtual machines.The technology, based on SR-IOV (Single Root I/O Virtualization), a PCI Express standard, delivers hardware GPU scheduling logic with high-precision quality of service to the user. It also preserves the data integrity of Virtualized Machines (VM) and their application data through hardware-enforced memory isolation logic preventing one VM from being able to access another VM's data. Last but not least, the technology exposes all graphics functionality of the GPU to applications allowing for full virtualization support for not only graphics APIs like DirectX and OpenGL but also GPU compute APIs like OpenCL.

The new AMD FirePro S7150 and AMD FirePro S7150 x2 server graphics cards will combine with OEM offerings to create high-performance virtual workstations. Typical VDI use cases include Computer-Aided Design (CAD), Media and Entertainment, and office applications.

Beyond business applications, it'll also be possible to run games and virtual reality applications. Users will be also able to run games written in DirectX and OpenGL.

The virtual GPUs for now will work only with VMWare's virtualization technology. Support for Xen and Microsoft's RemoteFX will come in the future, AMD said.

IT budgets can realize support for up to 16 simultaneous users with a single AMD FirePro S7150 GPU card which features 8 GB of GDDR5 memory, while up to twice as many simultaneous users (32 in total) can be supported by a single AMD FirePro S7150 x2 card which includes a total of 16 GB of GDDR5 memory (8GB per GPU). Both models feature 256-bit memory bandwidth.

The S7150 has 2,048 processor cores and draws 150 watts of power. The S7150x2 is two GPUs in one package, draws 265 watts of power. The GPUs are made using the 28-nanometer process.

The ability to provision virtual GPU workloads among multiple GPUs could come in the future, according to AMD.

AMD's competitor, Nvidia, has its own technology in which server-based graphics resources are assigned to virtual machines. The technology is designed for Nvidia's proprietary CUDA parallel programming language.

AMD FirePro S7150 and S7150 x2 server GPUs are expected to be available from server technology providers in the first half of 2016.