The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) yesterday announced that it has officially published the Embedded DisplayPort (eDP) Standard version 1.4b, which brings the previous 1.4a iteration into the final stages of production-ready status for future notebook and all-in-one desktop displays. This final revision of the eDP 1.4 standard includes a few "key protocol refinements and clarifications" to ensure ease-of-integration for partners supporting it and an overall lower bill of materials costs to its implementation.

The eDP 1.4 standard was announced two years ago, with an improved eDP 1.4a standard arriving earlier this year setting the stage for future 8K support on notebooks and all-in-one desktop computers.

The association promises that GPUs and CPUs that run the DisplayPort 1.3 standard for external display connectivity with 5K support will also be able to eDP 1.4b for internal uses. DisplayPort 1.3 support is, however, still only in the early stages, with Intel's latest Skylake chips not including it.

imacperformance

According to Bill Lempesis, executive director at VESA, “Since its introduction in 2008, eDP has become a central system element within the mobile computing market space. The standard has continued to retain its lead in display performance, supporting embedded panels with resolutions as high as 8K. We look forward to seeing systems incorporating the finalized standard come to fruition next year, broadening the number of consumers receiving clear, crisp visual information delivered by eDP 1.4 on their laptops, tablets, all-in-one PCs and possibly even smart phones.”

Apple's current 27-inch Retina iMac line-up uses its 5K Retina display to come in at 5120 x 2880 pixels, while the new eDP 1.4b standard could introduce an 8K monitor with a 7680 x 4320 display. The catch with the possibility of 8K is that it's still far from being widely supported, with only a select few high-end television sets backing the ultra high-def standard. Apple itself just launched a new line of 4K 21-inch and 5K 27-inch iMacs, so 8K support from the Cupertino company is still a ways off as well.

VESA notes that while it positions eDP 1.4b as the standard for the future, current machines are just beginning to integrate with eDP 1.3 and even earlier. Still, the association predicts a mid-2016 incorporation for the first system displays with 8K support, "and the final standard should continue to increase in adoption and be used in production for several years."

Top Rated Comments

keysofanxiety Avatar
110 months ago
Can you even imagine a 40" iMac with 8K retina display? It would be completely ridiculous, but for some reason I want it.

Each 8K screenshot would be about 33 megapixels. As a web designer, this is really making me cringe. The web isn't ready for that kind of image resolution! Hell, most cameras aren't even ready for that kind of resolution! Haha.
8K Retina display.
Hex-core i7@4GHz.
32GB 2100MHz RAM.
Dual nVidia GTX GPUs@4GB each.
5400RPM HDD.
Score: 38 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pgiguere1 Avatar
110 months ago
8K at what frequency? 30 Hz? Because it probably won't be used much in monitors until it can reach 60 Hz. Also it'd be nice to know what this implies for other resolutions, e.g. can it allow 4K at 120 or 144 Hz?

Edit: The source mentions a theoretical bandwidth of 25.92 Gbps, so making the math:
7680 × 4320 × 24bit × 30Hz = 23.887872 Gbps
So yeah, only 8K at 30Hz, that's pretty pointless.

On the upside, it does allow 4K at 120 Hz, since
3840 x 2160 × 24bit × 120Hz = 23.887872 Gbps
as well. That's the real news IMO.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ThatTechGuy Avatar
110 months ago
Still waiting for 16K.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sputnikv Avatar
110 months ago
All we need now is that stand-alone retina display
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
phairphan Avatar
110 months ago
There appears to be a fair amount of confusion here, albeit understandable (unless I'm the one completely out to sea). This article is not about DisplayPort 1.4--it's about Embedded DisplayPort 1.4. The former is the unspecified future successor to DP 1.3, which was the standard that was finalized last year and that will allow us to have external 5K displays at 60Hz with a single cable. Based on my admittedly limited understanding of the matter, the latter, eDP 1.4, is most easily conceptualized as the internal version of DP 1.3. This will allow us to have a 5K iMac without the current internal jiggery pokery that Apple has had to deploy and may permit us to witness the return of Target Display Mode. eDP 1.4 just brings the wholesome goodness of DP 1.3 to notebooks and all-in-ones, along with a super-sized serving of version number confusion.

The CW is that the first DP 1.3 cards will arrive in the middle of next year when Nvidia rolls out its successor to Maxwell. I wouldn't be surprised if eDP 1.4 appears shortly thereafter since it's basically the internally-formatted version of DP 1.3. The mid-2016 arrival cited in the article may not be too off.

Now, the question of when this will appear on Macs is a different beast. I imagine we will see eDP 1.4 (5K iMac) implemented before external DP 1.3 connections (the thing needed for external 5K displays with one cable). Since Apple and Intel made the questionable decision to multiplex DP and PCIe data in TB, and Apple made the decision to dump standalone mDP ports for TB ports, advances in display signal standards have been tied inextricably to advances in TB. DP 1.3 will not be rolled out in TB 3--you'll need to wait for TB 4, at the earliest, to see that. So, even if DP 1.3 appears in products by Nvidia in the middle of next year (and presumably AMD soon thereafter), as Mac owners we'll need to wait longer, perhaps much longer, before we see it. Given that TB 3 hasn't yet arrived on Mac, it's anybody's guess when we'll see TB 4.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mk_in_mke Avatar
110 months ago
In Milwau
Most copper wire Internet can provide 1 Gbps so it's not like we need fiber. It's just that most ISPs are lazy to upgrade their copper networks to allow this greater transmission speed.

I have 175 Mbps down and 25 Mbps up. While I can see these speeds at speedtest.net, I rarely see them while downloading 2GB+ downloads from iTunes. It seems like iTunes is good for 25 Mbps. I hardly even see these speeds when downloading 4k 100GB movies for my TV. My point is that content providers need to catch up.
kee,
Most copper wire Internet can provide 1 Gbps so it's not like we need fiber. It's just that most ISPs are lazy to upgrade their copper networks to allow this greater transmission speed.

I have 175 Mbps down and 25 Mbps up. While I can see these speeds at speedtest.net, I rarely see them while downloading 2GB+ downloads from iTunes. It seems like iTunes is good for 25 Mbps. I hardly even see these speeds when downloading 4k 100GB movies for my TV. My point is that content providers need to catch up.
I am still maxed at 50Mbs down / 5 Mbs up with Time Warner Cable (and this is the highest residential speed they can provide) Tried to switch to ATT and the max they offer in my area is ... 24Mbs! I live downtown Milwaukee, WI a 700,000 city! The ISPs here are a total joke.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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