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Video interface will go digital HDMI
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Wednesday, December 15, 2010
AMD and Intel have stated plans to phase out analog display output support in favor of digital display outputs such as DisplayPort and HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) by 2015.
In a joint statement with PC OEMs Dell and Lenovo, as well as Samsung Electronics LCD Business and LG Display, the two leading chipmakers said they expect that analog display outputs such as VGA (Video Graphics Array) and the LVDS (low voltage differential signaling technology) panel interface would no longer be supported in their product lines at that time.
The announcement is not surprising. HDMI has increasingly been included in new PCs and DisplayPort is projected by many to become the single PC digital display output for embedded flat panels, PC monitors, and projectors.
AMD and Intel noted that DisplayPort and HDMI allow for slimmer laptop designs, and support higher resolutions with deeper color than VGA, which is a more than 20-year-old technology.
"Modern digital display interfaces like DisplayPort and HDMI enhance the consumer visual PC experience by immersing them with higher resolutions and deeper colors -- all at lower power -- to enhance battery life for laptops," said Eric Mentzer, Intel's vice president of strategy, planning, and operations for the visual and parallel computing group, in a statement. "By moving to these new interfaces, Intel is able to focus investment on new innovations to enhance the PC experience rather than having to solve challenges of supporting legacy analog interfaces on our latest silicon process technology and products."
Intel said it plans to end support of LVDS in 2013 and VGA in 2015 in its PC client processors and chipsets.
AMD said it plans to begin phasing out legacy interfaces, starting with the removal of native LVDS output from most products in 2013. The company also plans to remove native VGA output starting in 2013, with expansion to all AMD products by 2015. This would mean DVI-I support will be eliminated in the same timeframe.
"Displays and display standards are rapidly evolving, with new features such as multi-display support, stereoscopic 3-D, higher resolutions, and increased color depth quickly moving from early adopter and niche usage to mainstream application," said Eric Demers, AMD's chief technology officer for the graphics division, said in the statement. "Legacy interfaces such as VGA, DVI, and LVDS have not kept pace, and newer standards such as DisplayPort and HDMI clearly provide the best connectivity options moving forward. In our opinion, DisplayPort 1.2 is the future interface for PC monitors, along with HDMI 1.4a for TV connectivity."
To be true, the large installed base of existing VGA monitors and projectors will likely keep VGA on PC back panels beyond 2015. But the companies pointed out that some leading PC makers are in strong support of this transition and that DisplayPort provides backward and forward compatibility by supporting VGA and DVI output.
"Moving to the latest digital standards like DisplayPort enables customers to preserve backward compatibility with installed equipment while taking full advantage of the latest advances in display capabilities, configuration options, and features," said Liam Quinn, chief technology officer, Dell business client, in the statement.
"We live in a digital-rich world and display technology must keep up with the explosion of digital content," said George He, chief technology officer at Lenovo, in the statement. "By transitioning to digital display technologies like DisplayPort and HDMI customers can not only enjoy a better computing experience, they get more of what's important to them in a laptop: more mobility, simplified design with fewer connectors, and longer battery life."
Display panel manufacturer Samsung Electronics LCD Business has already embedded DisplayPort notebook panels, which we have been shipping since March of this year. LG Display also said it is "fully prepared for this future transition."
The companies believe that the benefits of the digital display interfaces, as well as industry innovation around these interfaces, should accelerate overall adoption of the newer display technologies for PCs.
By: DocMemory
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