VESA was in a meeting room and was talking about the latest developments in DisplayStream and DisplayPort and to talk to OEMs about the forthcoming update to DisplayPort, which is in the final phase of documentation (and is, apparently, close to 900 pages!).
The group had one of the latest Asus USB monitors (MB169C+) which varies from previous ones in that it no longer uses the DisplayLink compression software to drive the graphics, but uses DisplayPort in the Type-C alt mode instead, we were told. The monitor has a 15.6″ IPS panel with FullHD resolution and weight of 800 grams and 8.5mm thickness. Brightness is 250 cd/m² and contrast is 600:1. Power consumption is quoted at less than 5W. (Note that the Asus website specifies the use of EZLink software and any USB 3.0, so it looks as though the production version is based on the older architecture, while the one on display must have been a development unit – BR)
On the subject of Type-C, the latest version can support the multi-stream features of DisplayPort. The VESA demo had a Lenovo Yoga with Type-C feeding a DisplayPort hub (from BizLink) that splits the signal to dual UltraHD (30P) displays. One of these is then daisy-chained to another 1920 x 1200 display. As a result, three high resolution monitors were being driven from a single Type-C output, highlighting that both daisy-chaining and hub operation can be supported over the Type-C ‘Alt’ mode.
There was also a demo of a ThunderBolt 3 Type-C configuration showing dual UltraHD 60P displays, as we had seen at Dell on the evening before.
Analyst Comment
We had a chat about the possibilities of an HDMI ‘Alt’ mode. As we reported on from CES, anyone can develop an Alt mode for Type-C if they meet the USB standard protocols. However, there is some significant work to do in converting the back channel data in HDMI to run over the Type-C, we heard at MWC. As a result, it may actually be cheaper for HDMI to use the DisplayPort ‘Alt’ mode and then a separate DP to HDMI converter. (BR)
