The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) has announced the release of the Mobility DisplayPort (MyDP) Standard designed for use on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. MyDP is an extension of the DisplayPort connectivity standard that enables mobile devices to share high-definition video, audio, and even stereoscopic 3D content with larger external displays through common, widely adopted connectors such as the standard micro USB connector already available on most newer smartphones and tablets. The MyDP standard allows for up to 1080p Full HD resolution, 24-bit color, and 60 Hz refresh rate as a maximum, so unfortunately no 1080p 3D content at 60 fps per eye yet (maximum 1080p 30Hz 3D mode), but hey you’d use this on a smartphone or a tablet (due to limited bandwidth). The MyDP interface also includes an additional 1Mbps sideband channel that provides enough bandwidth to support accessory functions including multi-touch, keyboard, mouse, and remote control of the external display.
What makes the new MyDP standard interesting for use on mobile devices is not only that it does not require a separate conector on the device, but also the fact that like the other DisplayPort interfaces it is also license free, unlike HDMI for example. Furthermore wth MyDP even when not using micro USB data cable, but you have a video cable connected, you’ll be getting your device charged while connected. Actually the MyDP standard may not compete that much with the micro HDMI that is already found on many smartphones and tablets (including on some 3D-capable devices providing stereoscopic 3D output), but instead with the new Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) standard being developed by a consortium of developers of mobile devices. The MHL is already available on some devices including some 3D-capable mobile products with the stereo 3D support apparently being offered by Dual-mode HDMI 1.4 and MHL solutions. So the MyDP standard actually would need to do some catching up as there will be some time needed before we start seeing mobile devices equipped with it appearing on the market though companies like Analogix Semiconductor for example already offers solutions supporting MyDP including a discrete bridge chip supporting MyDP and linking to HDMI interfaces in existing mobile processors that don’t yet have built-in support for the standard. According to VESA the first products scheduled to ship with MyDP support integrated are expected in the fourth quarter of 2012.
And just a reminder, the DisplayPort interface supports the following stereoscopic 3D formats: frame sequential with specs v1.1a; and field sequential, side-by-side, top-bottom, line interleaved, pixel interleaved and dual interface were introduced with the v1.2 specs. The DisplayPort version 1.2 specifications allow for up to 17.28 Gbps (4 lanes) effective bandwidth for video (21.6 Gbps total) and thus you can get much higher resolutions and refresh rates as compared to the more bandwidth limited MyDP standard that only has 4.32 Gbps (1 lane) effective video bandwidth (5.4 Gbps total). So for now MyDP 1.0 has things covered for the current generation of mobile devices, however in the last few years these devices have improved greatly and if the level of performance and features they offer continues to grow exponentially as it will most likely do the specs of the MyDP standard may soon need to be revised…