DisplayPort Comes To USB's Type-C Connector

Written by Michael Larabel in Standards on 22 September 2014 at 09:09 AM EDT. 15 Comments
STANDARDS
One week after the DisplayPort 1.3 debut, VESA this morning is announcing a new advancement to the DisplayPort standard: DisplayPort over USB.

VESA has specifically enabled DisplayPort capabilities over the new USB Type-C connector. USB Type-C is the new connector interface that is smaller and reversible. VESA in cooperation with the USB 3.0 Promoter Group worked out DisplayPort Alternate Mode over the connector. With this small connector, there's now full DisplayPort audio/video support at 4K and beyond, USB 3.1 data, and up to 100 Watts of power all over a single cable. The "Alternate Mode" that allowed for DisplayPort to jump on USB is part of the USB Type-C specification for re-tasking SuperSpeed USB lanes for other purposes.

There will be a USB Type-C to DisplayPort converter cable for allowing new devices to work with older, traditional DisplayPort monitors along with adapters for other video connections too.

Overall this is great to see DisplayPort over USB becoming an option for the new Type-C connector. This puts another blow to Thunderbolt.

At the time of writing the press release that was sent over to Phoronix has yet to be posted to the VESA or DisplayPort sites, but shortly you should be able to learn more about DisplayPort over USB 3.1 Type-C at DisplayPort.org.
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Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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