DisplayPort 2.0 was revealed 5 years ago, and development has been sluggish since its original announcement, with 2.1 being the current standard. A new update is finally here, with VESA (formerly the Video Electronics Standards Association) announcing a new version of the display connectivity standard.
DisplayPort 2.1a doubles the length of passive cables that can be used with the standard, now up to 2 meters. VESA is positioning the new DisplayPort revision as possibly being able to out-compete HDMI 2.1 in some use cases.
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“VESA today announced that it has published the latest update to DisplayPort, version 2.1a. This update replaces the VESA certified DP40 ultra-high-bit-rate (UHBR) cable specification with a new VESA certified DP54 UHBR cable spec to enable up to four-lane UHBR13.5 link rate support (a maximum throughput of 54 Gbps) over a two-meter passive cable,” reads VESA’s announcement. “As a result, the DisplayPort 2.1a update effectively doubles the passive cable length for UHBR13.5 GPU-to-display connections—which previously could only be supported through a DP80 UHBR cable.”
“With the latest update to DisplayPort, the UHBR13.5 cable spec is now purpose built to provide both UHBR10 and UHBR13.5 monitors and graphics cards with a longer passive cable,” says Compliance Program Manager, VESA, James Choate. “Consumers are no longer limited to connecting UHBR13.5 sink and source devices with a one-meter DP80 cable, which provides more bandwidth support than what their hardware needs and, in some cases, might be too short for their set-up, for example with ultra-wide curved displays.”
