VESA publishes the DisplayPort 2.1 specification

VESA publishes the DisplayPort 2.1 specification

The latest DisplayPort specification provides better alignment with USB Type-C and USB4;

BEAVERTON, Ore. – October 17, 2022 – The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA®) announced today that it has released DisplayPort 2.1, the latest version of the DisplayPort specification, which is backwards compatible and replaces the previous version of DisplayPort (DisplayPort 2.0). VESA works closely with member companies to ensure that products supporting DisplayPort 2.0 actually meet the newer, more demanding DisplayPort 2.1 specifications. Because of this effort, all pre-certified DisplayPort 2.0 products, including products that support UHBR (Ultra-high Bit Rate) – be they GPUs, docking station chips, monitor scalar chips, PHY repeater chips such as re-timers or DP40/DP80 cables (including both passive and active, and use DisplayPort, Mini DisplayPort or full-size USB Type-C connectors) – are already certified to the stricter DisplayPort 2.1 specification.

Achieving a robust, end-to-end user visual experience remains the highest priority for the VESA DisplayPort specification, whether through a native DisplayPort cable, through DisplayPort Alt Mode (DisplayPort over USB Type-C connector) or tunneled over a USB4 connection. As such, DisplayPort 2.1 has tightened its alignment with the USB Type-C specification as well as the USB4 PHY specification to facilitate a common PHY service for both DisplayPort and USB4. Additionally, DisplayPort 2.1 added a new DisplayPort bandwidth management feature to allow DisplayPort tunneling to more efficiently coexist with other I/O data traffic over a USB4 connection. This increased efficiency is on top of mandatory support for VESA’s lossless Display Stream Compression (DSC) codec and VESA Panel Replay capability. DSC bitstream support can reduce DisplayPort transport bandwidth by more than 67 percent without visual artifacts, while VESA’s Panel Replay capability can reduce DisplayPort packet tunneling bandwidth by more than 99 percent when Panel Replay operation is in progress.

“Achieving greater alignment between DisplayPort and USB on a common PHY was a particularly important effort within VESA given the significant overlap in use case models between the DisplayPort and USB4 ecosystems. DisplayPort 2.1 brings DisplayPort into convergence with the USB4 PHY specifications to ensure the highest video performance in a wide range of consumer products. Display transfer via DisplayPort, with its higher transfer rates and proven visual quality of DSC compression even for HDR content, offers enough bandwidth for the needs of almost any practical application. Functions such as controlling multiple displays via a single cable or enabling multiple functions on a single port such as video, power and data transfer, no longer require any compromise in the choice of video format. The advanced capabilities of the DisplayPort video interface are made possible by the invaluable contributions of our more than 300 member companies from across the electronics ecosystem.”

– said Alan Kobayashi, Chairman of the VESA Board and Chairman of the VESA DisplayPort Working Group.

DisplayPort 2.1 also updated the DisplayPort cable specification to provide greater robustness and improvements to full-size and Mini DisplayPort cable configurations that allow for improved connectivity and longer cable lengths (over two meters for DP40 cables and over one meter for DP80 cables) without reducing UHBR . performance. VESA certified DP40 cables support connection speeds up to UHBR10 (10 Gbps), with four lanes, providing a maximum throughput of 40 Gbps, while VESA certified DP80 cables support connection speeds up to UHBR20 (20 Gbps), with four lanes, providing a maximum throughput of 80 Gbps .

VESA certified DP40 and DP80 UHBR cables guarantee display connection and operation at the highest performance levels for products that support DisplayPort 2.1. Source: VESA.

“For all of our standards, including DisplayPort, VESA has invested significantly in testing and revision procedures, including interoperability testing of products that incorporate VESA specifications. This is to ensure that products introduced to the market that require support for VESA standards meet the high quality standards we have established. VESA continues to research and develop new procedures to improve our review process to ensure robust implementation of quality products that support DisplayPort and other VESA specifications on the market. Thanks to the contributions of test equipment suppliers, VESA has a solid test infrastructure to support the wider testing and deployment of DisplayPort 2.1 certified devices in the market.”

– said James Choate, Compliance Program Manager for VESA.