The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) announced that DP8K Certified DisplayPort cables – native DisplayPort cables that are guaranteed to support DisplayPort High Bit Rate 3 (HBR3) – are now available in the marketplace. Several high-performance gaming systems showcasing the ability to drive 4K resolution at 120 fps using DisplayPort HBR3 will be at CES 2018.
HBR3 is the highest bit rate (8.1 Gigabits per second (Gbps) per lane) supported by DisplayPort standard version 1.4, and provides the speed required to drive 8K video resolution at 60 frames per second (fps) using a single cable, as well as multiple 4K displays. Key applications supported by HBR3 include high-performance gaming, augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) and television broadcasting.
With HBR3 already available in a wide array of consumer products, including GPUs and monitors, the availability of cables that have been certified by VESA to support HBR3 provides a crucial final link to the ecosystem.
VESA is also currently engaged with its members in the development of the next DisplayPort standard generation, with plans to increase the data rate enabled by DisplayPort by two-fold and beyond. VESA plans to publish this upgrade within the next 18 months. Further developments in display interfaces are needed to address future performance requirements of traditional displays, such as beyond 8K resolutions, as well as greater enhancement of the user experience with AR/VR displays, including 4K-and-beyond VR resolutions.
With DP8K Certified cables, devices with native DisplayPort connectors can reliably support 5K or 8K monitors, as well as high-performance 4K monitors. For USB Type-C (USB-C) to USB-C connections, this same level of performance is available with “SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps” cables, which support the HBR3 data rate for DisplayPort Alt Mode.
Cable vendors offering DP8K Certified DisplayPort cables include ELKA International, Hotron Precision Electronic Industrial, Dezhou HongJu Communication Technology, Ji-Haw Industrial, and Ningbo Prime Electronic. HBR3 cable testing is now available at DisplayPort Authorized Test Centers (ATCs), including Allion Labs and Granite River Labs (GRL).
Several high performance gaming system showcasing the ability to drive 4K resolutions at 120 fps using DisplayPort HBR3 will be demonstrated at the CES 2018, Las Vegas Convention Center South Hall, DisplayPort booth # 21066.
Todd Cochrane talks with a Bill Lempesis, Executive Director of the 
In developing DisplayPort, VESA has worked to ensure that the standard meets the needs of the modern user. The standard allows for multiple screens at high resolutions and the aim is to replace VGA, DVI and HDMI with a single connector. Cleverly, DisplayPort has backwards compatibility with the legacy devices as the DisplayPort itself is powered, so cable adaptors can be used to convert the signals to an older connection types.