The Mini DisplayPort (MiniDP or mDP) is a miniaturized and less common version of the

DisplayPort DisplayPort (DP) is a digital display interface developed by a consortium of PC and chip manufacturers and standardized by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). It is primarily used to connect a video source to a display device su ...

audio-visual Audiovisual (AV) is electronic media possessing both a sound and a visual component, such as slide-tape presentations, films, television programs, corporate conferencing, church services, and live theater productions. Audiovisual service p ...

digital interface. It was announced by

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ances ...

in October 2008, and by early 2013 all new Apple Macintosh computers had Mini DisplayPort, as did the LED Cinema Display. However, in 2016 Apple began phasing out the port and replacing it with the new

USB-C USB-C (properly known as USB Type-C) is a 24-pin USB connector system with a rotationally symmetrical connector. The designation C refers only to the connector's physical configuration or form factor and should not be confused with the conne ...

connector. The Mini DisplayPort is also fitted to some PC motherboards, video cards, and some PC notebooks from Asus,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

, MSI,

Lenovo Lenovo Group Limited, often shortened to Lenovo ( , ), is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in designing, manufacturing, and marketing consumer electronics, personal computers, software, business solutions, and related se ...

Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems ...

, HP,

Dell Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies. Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...

, and other manufacturers. Apple offers a free license for the Mini DisplayPort but they reserve the right to cancel the license should the licensee "commence an action for patent infringement against Apple".

Specifications

Unlike its Mini-DVI and Micro-DVI predecessors, the Mini DisplayPort can drive display devices with resolutions up to 2560×1600 (

WQXGA The graphics display resolution is the width and height dimension of an electronic visual display device, measured in pixels. This information is used for electronic devices such as a computer monitor. Certain combinations of width and height ar ...

) in its DisplayPort 1.1a implementation, and 4096×2160 ( 4K) in its DisplayPort 1.2 implementation. With an adapter, the Mini DisplayPort can drive display devices with VGA, DVI, or

HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controll ...

interfaces.

Compatibility

Apple replaced the DVI port from the MacBook,

MacBook Air The MacBook Air is a line of ultrabook computers developed and manufactured by Apple Inc. It consists of a full-size keyboard, a machined aluminum case, and, in the more modern versions, a thin light structure. The Air was originally positi ...

, MacBook Pro,

iMac iMac is a family of all-in-one Mac desktop computers designed and built by Apple Inc. It has been the primary part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since its debut in August 1998, and has evolved through seven distinct forms. In i ...

, Mac Mini, and the Mac Pro with the Mini DisplayPort. Its use as the video connector for the 24-inch Cinema Display may complicate compatibility: * Mini DisplayPort's HDCP extension disables playback of certain DRM-encrypted content on any display not designed for it. This includes some content from the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

which has no such restrictions if played on a Mac without Mini DisplayPort. * Apple's Dual-Link DVI or VGA adapters are relatively large and expensive compared to past adapters, and customers have reported problems with them, such as being unable to connect to an external display. Monitors connected to a Mini DisplayPort via these adaptors may have resolution problems or not "wake up" from sleep. * While the DisplayPort specification can support digital audio, the older 2009 line of MacBooks, MacBook Pros, and Mac Minis cannot provide an audio signal through the Mini DisplayPort, and only do so over USB, Firewire, or the audio line out port. (The April 2010 line of MacBook Pro, Mid 2010 MacBook, and July 2010 iMac and later do support this). This can be a problem for users who want to connect their computers to HDTVs using a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter. To work around this issue, some third-party manufacturers have created dual or triple-headed adapters that get power for the adapter from a USB port, video from the Mini DisplayPort, and audio from either the USB port or the optical-out port. Either option terminates with a single female HDMI connector, thus allowing both video and audio to be channeled over the single HDMI cable.

Adoption

* In early 2009, VESA announced that Mini DisplayPort would be included in the upcoming DisplayPort 1.2 specification. * In the fourth quarter of 2009, VESA announced that the Mini DisplayPort had been adopted. All devices using the Mini DisplayPort must comply with the 1.1a standard. *On 7 January 2010, Toshiba introduced Satellite Pro S500, Tecra M11, A11 and S11 notebooks featuring Mini DisplayPort. * AMD released a special variant of its Radeon HD 5870 graphics card called the Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition, which features 2GB GDDR5 memory, higher clock speeds than the original card, and six Mini DisplayPort outputs with a maximum resolution of 5760 × 2160 pixels (a 3×2 grid of 1080p displays). *On 13 April 2010,

added support for audio out using Mini DisplayPort in their MacBook Pro product line. This allows users to easily connect their Macbook Pros to their HDTVs using a cable adapting Mini DisplayPort to HDMI with full audio and video functionality. *On 5 May 2010, HP announced Envy 14 and Envy 17 notebooks with Mini DisplayPort. *On 20 October 2010,

announced XPS 14, 15, and 17 notebooks with Mini DisplayPort. *On 24 February 2011, Apple and Intel announced

Thunderbolt A thunderbolt or lightning bolt is a symbolic representation of lightning when accompanied by a loud thunderclap. In Indo-European mythology, the thunderbolt was identified with the Proto-Indo-European mythology#Sky Father, 'Sky Father'; this ...

, a successor to Mini DisplayPort which adds support for

PCI Express PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe or PCI-e, is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard, designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X and AGP bus standards. It is the common m ...

data connections while maintaining backwards compatibility with Mini DisplayPort-based peripherals. *On 17 May 2011,

announced the ThinkPad X1 notebook with Mini DisplayPort. *In May 2011,

released the XPS 15z notebook with Mini DisplayPort. *On 15 May 2012,

announced the ThinkPad notebooks X1 Carbon, Helix, X230, L430, L530, T430s, T430, T530, T550, W530 with Mini DisplayPort. *In 2012,

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the devel ...

shipped the second generation Intel NUC of which the top model with an i5 had a Mini DisplayPort and the top i3 model had Thunderbolt through a Mini DisplayPort. *On 9 February 2013,

released the

Surface Tablet Microsoft Surface is a series of touchscreen-based personal computers, tablets and interactive whiteboards designed and developed by Microsoft, running the Microsoft Windows operating system, apart from the Surface Duo, which runs on And ...

, Surface Pro, equipped with Windows 8 Pro and Mini DisplayPort. *In June 2013,

shipped the third-generation Intel NUC with both Mini HDMI and Mini DisplayPort. (The i3 and i5 models, not the Celeron or Atom models) *On 5 July 2013, Asus announced new N Series laptops N550 and N750 with both HDMI and Mini DisplayPort. *On 25 July 2013,

announced the Precision M3800 mobile workstation with Mini DisplayPort. *On 8 August 2013,

announced the

Latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north po ...

E7240 and E7440 business notebooks with Mini DisplayPort. *On 9 September 2013,

announced the

ThinkPad ThinkPad is a line of business-oriented laptop computers and tablets designed, developed and marketed by Lenovo, and formerly by IBM until 2005, when IBM's PC business was acquired by Lenovo. ThinkPads have a distinct black, boxy design la ...

X240s, L440, L540, T440, T440s, T440p, T540p and W540 with Mini DisplayPort. *On 22 October 2013,

released the Surface Pro 2, equipped with Windows 8.1 Pro and Mini DisplayPort. *On 20 June 2014,

released the Surface Pro 3 with Mini DisplayPort. *On 5 May 2015,

released the

Surface 3 Surface 3 is a 2-in-1 detachable from the Microsoft Surface series, introduced by Microsoft in 2015. Unlike its predecessor, the Surface 2, Surface 3 utilizes an x86 Intel Atom system-on-chip architecture, or SoC, rather than a processor wit ...

with Mini DisplayPort. *On 6 October 2015,

released the Surface Book, equipped with Windows 10 Pro and Mini DisplayPort. *On 10 October 2015,

released the

Surface Pro 4 The Surface Pro 4 is the fourth-generation Surface-series 2-in-1 detachable, designed, developed, marketed, and produced by Microsoft. The Surface Pro 4 was announced on October 6, 2015 alongside the Surface Book. In the U.S. and Canada, the Su ...

, equipped with Windows 10 Pro and Mini DisplayPort. *On 2 June 2016,

Gigabyte The gigabyte () is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix '' giga'' means 109 in the International System of Units (SI). Therefore, one gigabyte is one billion bytes. The unit symbol for the gigabyte is GB. This defini ...

announced the Aero 14 with Mini DisplayPort. *On 11 November 2016, ECS Liva released the Liva Z Mini PC with Mini DisplayPort. *On 15 December 2016,

released the

Surface Studio The Surface Studio is an all-in-one PC, designed and produced by Microsoft as part of its Surface series of Windows-based personal computing devices. It was announced at the Windows 10 Devices Event on October 26, 2016, with pre-orders begin ...

with Mini DisplayPort. *On 15 June 2017,

released the

Surface Laptop The Surface Laptop is a line of laptops marketed by Microsoft, as a sub-brand of their Surface devices. Several models have been produced: * Surface Laptop (1st generation), released in 2017 * Surface Laptop 2, released in 2018 * Surface Laptop ...

, equipped with Windows 10 Pro, and the fifth-generation Surface Pro, equipped with Windows 10 Pro, both with Mini DisplayPort. *On 16 October 2018,

released the

Surface Pro 6 The Surface Pro 6 is a 2-in-1 detachable tablet computer developed by Microsoft. It is the sixth generation of Surface Pro and was announced alongside the Surface Laptop 2 on October 2, 2018 at an event in New York. It was released on 16th of ...

, equipped with Mini DisplayPort.

References

{{Solid-state drive Apple Inc. hardware Digital display connectors VESA Computer-related introductions in 2008 Apple Inc. displays

Specifications

Compatibility

Adoption

See also

References