VESA Adopts AMD’s DockPort as part of the DisplayPort standard

CES14 Press Release

Jan 8, 2014 by

VESA logoYesterday VESA announced that it was adopting AMD’s long time pet project DockPort, an extension of the DisplayPort standard. Originally codenamed Lightning bolt as a reference to Intel’s Thunderbolt connector DockPort allows for low I/O port count devices like tablets, SFF PCs, and laptops to connect to multipurpose docking hubs using DisplayPort. Charlie covered the launch of Texas Instrument’s home-brewed DockPort last August and snagged a look at one of the hubs in May. For a technical look at the architecture of AMD’s *ahem* VESA’s DockPort Extension head to this classic article by yours truly.

DisplayPorts Visual

But the most important thing to note is the Q2 2014 date for the finalization of this VESA spec. for DockPort which lines up nicely with AMD’s schedule for the launch of its upcoming Beema and Mullins low power chips. It’s taken quite some time but it looks like AMD’s dream of a low-cost standardized docking solution is finally becoming a reality. The other thing worth taking note of here is AMD’s continued use/support of the VESA group through their efforts with the DisplayPort standard, the MST display chaining hubs, and of course DockPort. Expect more interesting standards to come from VESA with a little help from AMD in the future.

For more info check out the VESA press release and Anandtech’s take on this announcement.S|A

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Thomas Ryan

Author at SemiAccurate
Thomas Ryan is a freelance technology writer and photographer from Seattle, living in Austin. You can also find his work on SemiAccurate and PCWorld. He has a BA in Geography from the University of Washington with a minor in Urban Design and Planning and specializes in geospatial data science. If you have a hardware performance question or an interesting data set Thomas has you covered.