VESA Approves Apple's Mini DisplayPort Standard

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) today announced that it has officially issued specifications as part of the DisplayPort 1.1a standard for the Mini DisplayPort connector developed by Apple and implemented on its Macs since the October 2008 introduction of the 24" LED Cinema Display and refreshed MacBooks and MacBook Pros.

Apple had initially offered the standard on its own as a no-fee license in order to encourage adoption, but VESA announced early this year that it would include the Mini DisplayPort specification in its next update to the broader DisplayPort standard, opening the door for even simpler adoption by other manufacturers.

Originally developed by Apple for its new generation of portable PCs, Mini DisplayPort is much smaller than DVI (Digital Video Interface) or VGA connectors and enables full function display output on ultrathin notebooks and netbooks. Earlier this year, Apple agreed to license the mDP interface to VESA for inclusion in the DisplayPort standard.

VESA also announced that it is in the process of finalizing DisplayPort Standard 1.2, which will double the available bandwidth and open the door to a broad range of improvements in display connectivity.

VESA is finalizing DisplayPort 1.2, which incorporates mDP and doubles available bandwidth to 21.6 Gb/second. The increased bandwidth enables new capabilities such as multi-monitor support via a single output connector, higher resolutions, refresh rates and color depths, along with high performance 3D displays.