For those who have been following VESA standards, DisplayPort is a
royalty-free digital display interface concept introduced back in May 2006 that
has been trying to gain ground in the computer industry for some time
now.
The open industry standard, supported by HP, Philips,
Samsung, AMD, Nvidia, Intel and many other companies, seeks to eventually
replace the de facto DVI standard over the next several years due to its greater
bandwidth allowance, slimmer display support, internal chip-to-chip
communication, and reduced electromagnetic interference levels among other
technical advantages.
According to Register Hardware, VESA is set to publish
its new DisplayPort 1.2 specification by the middle of the year.
Among the interface's central improvements include a doubling of
available bandwidth to 5.4 Gbit/s. As a result, this should
provide sufficient throughput for 120Hz stereoscopic 3D imagery at 1920 x 1080,
or four standard 1920 x 1200 screens. However, VESA anticipates
multi-display setups to be linked in a daisy-chain fashion rather than through a
four-way split cable.
Although DisplayPort lacks xvYCC color space support in
contrast to HDMI, the increased bandwidth in the 1.2 specification will
allow up to 3840 x 2160 resolutions to be reached with a color depth of 30 bits per
pixel.
Very soon, laptop vendors will be able to implement the
interface in upcoming lineups with the mini-DisplayPort connector.
According to Apple, the smaller version of the interface is 10% the size
of a full DVI connector. As a result, there is more free space
inside a laptop and on its sides.