VESA has announced the launch of DisplayPort 2.1, which replaces the current DP2.0 specification while remaining backward compatible.
VESA begins DisplayPort 2.1 specification & immediately replaces the previous DisplayPort 2.0 certification
Many months have gone into preparing the new standard, with VESA working with several partnering companies to adopt the new specification in their designs. This will change all active products using the previous DP2.0 specification and certify all items under the latest DisplayPort 2.1 specification. This includes components such as graphics cards, chips for docking stations, monitor scalar chips, PHY repeater chips (re-timers), and DP40 and DP80 cables of all types will now be certified under DisplayPort 2.1.
VESA worked diligently to ensure that DisplayPort 2.1 would offer better throughput with its various options for consumers, from the standard DP cable, through the USB4 link (introduced this last year to assist with a combination of faster data transfers along with enhanced visual speeds), and the DP USB-C connector. Now, DP 2.1 bandwidth has a management feature that allows quicker and more efficient I/O transfers through the USB4 link connection. The output produces 67% fewer visual artifacts and a 99% bandwidth increase through DP tunneling packet transports during Panel Relay operations.
Achieving greater alignment between DisplayPort and USB on a common PHY has been 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 USB4 PHY specifications to ensure the highest video performance across a broad range of consumer products. Display transport through DisplayPort, with its higher bit rates and proven visual quality of DSC compression even for HDR content, offers ample bandwidth for the needs of virtually every practical application. Features such as driving multiple displays over a single cable, or enabling multiple functions on a single port like video, power and data transfer, no longer require any compromise in video format choice. The advanced capabilities of the DisplayPort video interface are enabled by the invaluable contributions by our more than 300 member companies from across the electronics ecosystem.
— Alan Kobayashi, VESA Board Chair and VESA DisplayPort Task Group Chair
For all of our standards including DisplayPort, VESA has invested significant resources in testing and auditing procedures, including interoperability testing of products incorporating VESA specifications. This is to ensure that products that are introduced to market that claim support of VESA’s standards meet the high-quality benchmarks that we have established. VESA continues to investigate and develop new procedures to improve our auditing process in order to ensure robust implementation of quality products supporting DisplayPort and other VESA specs in the market. Thanks to the contributions by test equipment vendors, VESA has a solid test infrastructure in place to support wider testing and deployment of DisplayPort 2.1 certified devices in the marketplace.
— James Choate, compliance program manager, VESA
Increases in cable lengths have now been extended above DP40 and DP80 cables. The DP40 line receives the same connectivity as before, but with above two-meter connections, whereas DP80 is allowed the same but above one-meter connections. Additionally, UHBR performance has been improved by offering UHBR10 link rates, 10 Gbps with four lanes, and 40 Gbps maximum throughput. UHBR20 receives 20 Gbps across four lanes for 80 Gbps maximum throughput.
