VESA announces DisplayPort 2.1a
The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) has announced the latest DisplayPort 2.1a specification, replacing the existing DP40 Ultra-High Bit Rate (UHBR) cable specification with the new DP54 UHBR cable specification. This advancement enables support for up to four-channel UHBR13.5 link rates (54 Gbps) on two-meter passive cables, offering enhanced flexibility for gamers or workstation users. Additionally, VESA has established the first new automotive extension service protocol specification for DisplayPort 2.1a and the latest Embedded DisplayPort (eDP) 1.5a.
The DisplayPort 2.1a specification addresses the previous limitation of needing DP80 UHBR cables for long-distance transmission. It enables displays supporting UHBR13.5 to exhibit resolutions up to 8K2K@240 Hz or 8K4K@120 Hz on a four-channel transmission basis. VESA states that existing DP40 cables, having undergone rigorous testing, comply with the new DP54 cable specification. However, devices supporting UHBR20 still require the use of DP80 UHBR cables.
VESA-certified DP40 and DP80 UHBR cables guarantee display connectivity and operation at the highest performance levels introduced with DisplayPort 2.0.
With the advancement of automotive intelligence, more high-resolution displays are being equipped in vehicles. These displays provide a variety of crucial information, necessitating that drivers operate their vehicles safely and effectively. Most automotive displays currently use DisplayPort or eDP to transmit video signals. Besides their exceptional transmission bandwidth, DisplayPort also features Multi-Stream Transport (MST) capability, allowing multiple displays to connect to a single DP source port. However, until now, no standard ensured that data transmitted from GPUs were correctly received by displays without signal interference or loss.
VESA’s new automotive extension protocol specification addresses this need. It adds safety protocols to the existing DisplayPort 2.1a and eDP 1.5a specifications, providing mandatory functional safety profiles for the main data path and metadata. This ensures a higher level of safety-rated cyclic redundancy check (CRC) polynomial mathematical signatures for every frame of video data on the data path, guaranteeing that a frame is never dropped or duplicated and ensuring the accuracy of data transmission.
The protocol also includes more advanced optional profiles, providing functional safety for the DisplayPort Aux channel that carries command and control data. It offers security authentication and integrity checks for the data path and encrypts the DisplayPort Aux channel to prevent tampering or reading of vehicle video data, thereby enhancing the security of automotive video data.
