Features/DisplayPort1Point2

= DisplayPort 1.2 =

Summary
DisplayPort version 1.2 adds significant functionality, some of which will require OS-level enhancements to use.

Owner

 * Name: Adam Jackson
 * Email: ajax@redhat.com

Current status

 * Targeted release: Fedora 17
 * Last updated: 30 September 2011
 * Percentage of completion: 0%

Detailed Description
DisplayPort 1.2 specifies several new (optional) features:


 * Multiple video streams over a single cable (daisy-chaining)
 * USB and Ethernet tunnelling over the DP cable
 * Higher peak data rate, to enable the above as well as larger displays
 * Additional HD audio formats
 * Stereo 3D video support
 * Better A/V synchronization across multiple data streams

These features require support on both the source and sink side. Though we are not aware of any currently-shipping hardware supporting DisplayPort 1.2 on either side, this is expected to change in the F17 to F18 timeframe.

Benefit to Fedora
Fedora users will be able to take advantage of the features of newer DisplayPort hardware.

Scope
Kernel-level changes will be required to detect and enable DP 1.2 features, in the form of both common code and driver-specific enhancements. Some features may also require userspace enhancements (for example, better stream sync support in gstreamer).

How To Test
Buy a DP 1.2 source (video card) and sink (monitor) and see what works.

User Experience
On sufficiently capable systems, DP 1.2 features should Just Work. For example, for USB tunnelling, you should be able to simply plug your mouse into the monitor (and not the host) and have it work normally.

Dependencies
Completion of all DP 1.2 features depends on hardware availability, which is not on a schedule we can control.

Ethernet and USB tunnelling will require some integration between the relevant kernel subsystems and the graphics subsystem.

Additional audio formats may require extending the ALSA interface.

Stereo 3D will require integration with OpenGL. In a composited desktop like Gnome 3 this integration will have to extend through the compositor, so that frames that are left-eye and right-eye from the application perspective are appropriately displayed by the compositor.

Contingency Plan
Individual DP 1.2 features may not be completed for all hardware, or all at once. No particular back-out plan is needed; all such features are already absent, nothing can be harmed by their lack of inclusion.

Documentation
Though they have made a number of press releases describing the new feature set, VESA has decided that the DisplayPort 1.2 spec (unlike 1.1a) will not be publicly available. It can be purchased from VESA directly.

Hardware programming interfaces are expected to be documented through either code or documentation releases from major video vendors.

Release Notes

 * None yet.

Comments and Discussion

 * See Talk:Features/DisplayPort1Point2