The VESA Digital Flat Panel (DFP) interface standard specifies a video connector and digital TMDS signaling for

flat-panel display A flat-panel display (FPD) is an electronic visual display, electronic display used to display device, display visual content such as text or images. It is present in consumer, medical, transportation, and industrial equipment. Flat-panel disp ...

s. It features 20 pins and uses the PanelLink protocol; the standard is based on the preceding

VESA Plug and Display VESA Plug and Display (abbreviated as P&D) is a video connector that carries digital signals for monitors, such as flat panel displays and video projectors, ratified by Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) in 1997. Introduced around th ...

(P&D) standard, ratified in 1997. Unlike the later, electrically-compatible

Digital Visual Interface Digital Visual Interface (DVI) is a video display interface developed by the Digital Display Working Group (DDWG). The digital interface is used to connect a video source, such as a video display controller, to a display device, such as a co ...

(DVI, 1999), DFP never achieved widespread implementation.

History

P&D combined analog and digital video with data over

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...

and

FireWire IEEE 1394 is an interface standard for a serial bus for high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer. It was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Apple in cooperation with a number of companies, primarily Sony a ...

to reduce cable clutter, but the

feature creep Feature creep is the excessive ongoing expansion or addition of new features in a product, especially in computer software, video games (where it should not be confused with power creep) and consumer and business electronics. These extra feature ...

resulted in an unpopular, expensive connector.

Compaq Compaq Computer Corporation was an American information technology, information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced some of the first IBM PC compati ...

described DFP as a "transition" step between the analog

VGA connector The Video Graphics Array (VGA) connector is a standard connector used for computer video output. Originating with the 1987 IBM PS/2 and its VGA graphics system, the 15-pin connector went on to become ubiquitous on PCs, as well as many monitors ...

and P&D: DFP was designed by a consortium including Compaq,

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

, and

ATI Technologies ATI Technologies Inc. was a Canadian semiconductor industry, semiconductor technology corporation based in Markham, Ontario, that specialized in the development of graphics processing units and chipsets. Founded in 1985, the company listed pub ...

as a smaller, simpler connector, dropping support for analog video and data in favor of transmitting exclusively digital video signals. The connector was used by displays such as the Compaq Presario FP400, FP500, FP700, Fp720, 5204, and 5280. It was offered on

graphics cards A graphics card (also called a video card, display card, graphics accelerator, graphics adapter, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, display adapter, or colloquially GPU) is a computer expansion card that generates a feed of graphics output to a displa ...

such as the Xpert LCD, and Rage LT Pro by

, and the Oxygen GVX1 by

3Dlabs 3DLABS Inc. Ltd. was a fabless semiconductor company. It was founded by Yavuz Ahıska and Osman Kent in 1994 with headquarters in San Jose, California. It originally developed the GLINT and PERMEDIA high-end graphics processing unit, graphics chi ...

Design

DFP is compatible electrically with P&D (and by extension, DVI); DFP uses the

Display Data Channel Display Data Channel (DDC) is a collection of protocols for digital communication between a computer display and a graphics adapter that enable the display to communicate its supported display modes to the adapter and that enable the computer hos ...

(DDC) standard level DDC2B for operation and the

Extended Display Identification Data Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) and Enhanced EDID (E-EDID) are metadata formats for display devices to describe their capabilities to a video source (e.g., graphics card or set-top box). The data format is defined by a standard publish ...

(EDID) protocol to identify the display to the host. Like the preceding P&D, DFP uses the PanelLink TMDS protocol developed by Silicon Image for digital video signals. The DFP standard specifies a 20-pin mini D ribbon connector; however, as the signal protocols are identical, DFP connectors generally are compatible with devices equipped with a DVI interface by using a passive adaptor. All DFP-compliant devices are required to support resolutions of 640×400, 720×400, and 640×480 (each at a

refresh rate The refresh rate, also known as vertical refresh rate, vertical scan rate or vertical frequency in reference to terminology originating with the cathode-ray tubes (CRTs), is the number of times per second that a raster-based display device displa ...

of 60Hz) as a minimum level of interoperability, although the resulting display may not necessarily be centered or scaled. DFP was superseded by DVI because DFP, like P&D, is limited to a single-link TMDS signal. In contrast, DVI is capable of higher maximum resolutions because it supports a dual-link TMDS signal; in addition, DVI also supports analog video, which makes the VGA connector redundant. Image:DFP_connector.jpg, male DFP connector Image:DFP_graphic_card_cutted.jpg, female DFP connector Image:Adapter_DVI_DFP.jpg, DVI-DFP adaptor

References

External links

DFP diagram and description of pin layout

Digital flat panel The VESA Digital Flat Panel (DFP) interface standard specifies a video connector and digital TMDS signaling for flat-panel displays. It features 20 pins and uses the PanelLink protocol; the standard is based on the preceding VESA Plug and Displ ...

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