Top PC, Chip, Display Makers to Ditch VGA, DVI
A number of the top PC companies said Wednesday that they will phase out analog display connections in the next few years, meaning that the PC's future will likely be a digital one. VGA, DVI, and LVDS are on the way out.
A number of the top PC companies said Wednesday that they will phase out analog display connections in the next few years, meaning that the PC's future will likely be a digital one.
AMD and Intel, two of the top graphics companies, joined PC makers Dell and Lenovo as well as display manufacturers Samsung and LG Display to announce that they would phase out support for the Low Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS) display technology by around 2013, and the legacy VGA connection by about 2015. Nvidia, the other top graphics company, did not join the others.
VGA is a holdover from the IBM PS/2, first announced in 1987. The so-called PS/2 keyboard connector began disappearing once the Universal Serial Bus began displacing it, and PC BIOS software began recognizing USB mice in their boot procedures. The 15-pin VGA connector and pinout, however, has become a familiar shape to computer enthusiasts, and the 640-by-480 display resolution is the baseline for desktop PCs and notebooks.
LVDS, however, usually is used as an embedded panel interface, according to an AMD spokesman.
Specifically, Intel said that it plans to end LVDS support in 2013 for its PC client processors and chipsets, and to end support for VGA in 2015 for the same products.
"Modern digital display interfaces like DisplayPort and HDMI enhance the consumer visual PC experience by immersing them with higher resolutions and deeper colors -- all at lower power -- to enhance battery life for laptops," said Eric Mentzer, Intel's vice president of strategy, planning and operations for the Visual and Parallel Computing Group, in a statement. "By moving to these new interfaces, Intel is able to focus investment on new innovations to enhance the PC experience rather than having to solve challenges of supporting legacy analog interfaces on our latest silicon process technology and products."
AMD, for its part, said that it would end support for LVDS output from "most products in 2013". AMD will remove VGA output, as well as DVI-I support, beginning in 2013 as well. By 2015, AMD said it would phase out the VGA and DVI-I technology from all of its products.
"We believe in and support DP [DisplayPort] and HDMI standards as the future of displays," an AMD spokesman said.
"Legacy interfaces such as VGA, DVI and LVDS have not kept pace, and newer standards such as DisplayPort and HDMI clearly provide the best connectivity options moving forward," Eric Demers, AMD's chief technology officer of its Graphics Division, said in a statement. "In our opinion, DisplayPort 1.2 is the future interface for PC monitors, along with HDMI 1.4a for TV connectivity."
In an interview, a spokesman for AMD noted that the company ships DVI-to-HDMI adapters with its graphics cards, providing a bridge between the technology generations. An Intel spokesman also confirmed via email that by 2015, Intel will only support HDMI and DisplayPort technology.
"Samsung Electronics LCD Business is already supporting this transition with embedded DisplayPort notebook panels, which we have been shipping since March of this year," said Seung-Hwan Moon, vice president of engineering, LCD Business, Samsung Electronics, in a statement.
That doesn't necessarily mean that VGA, long used by legacy CRT displays, will vanish in five years. Other PC manufacturers may support the technology, and there will still be a large installed base of cards and monitors.
DisplayPort can also support both VGA and DVI through certified adapters, providing legacy compatibility.
Editor's Note: This story was updated at 10:32 AM PT with additional details.