Digital display

A group of companies, including ATI Technologies, Dell, Genesis Microchip, Hewlett-Packard, Molex, NVIDIA, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics and Tyco Electronics is developing a new digital interface specification for use with most forms of displays.

The group intends to submit its so-called ‘DisplayPort’ interface proposal to the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) in the third quarter this year.

Pending ratification and adoption by VESA, the group will then make the interface standard available to the industry as an open, extensible standard.

The display connectors used by the computer industry today are relatively large, leading to a conflict with the trend towards small, slim form factors. The DisplayPort standard, on the other hand, will sport a small connector that is simple to use. What is more, high-quality audio will be available to the display device over the same cable as the video signal, decreasing cost and desktop clutter.

The standard will have a high initial bandwidth and is designed to scale to even higher bandwidths to accommodate future display requirements. And, perhaps most important of all, it will provide a means to protect both image and audio content…