This Unconventional DisplayPort Accepts Both DP & HDMI Connections

This Unconventional DisplayPort Accepts Both DP & HDMI Connections

Today, the two most common display connector standards – HDMI and DisplayPort – dominate the TV and monitor space. However, there’s a crucial difference between the two aside from resolution and refresh rate capabilities: HDMI requires a royalty fee to be paid on each device it is installed on, whereas DisplayPort is an open standard that can be implemented with no additional cost beyond the materials (it’s also why you may see multiple DisplayPort outputs on a GPU).

This is probably a case of what-could-have-been in the form of the Xi3 Piston PC. This tiny computer has an interesting backstory – back in 2013, it was touted to be one of the “Steam Machine”, Valve’s plans to introduce home entertainment-like devices with a framework of components designed to sit in your living room. However, plans changed, and fallout ensued between the two companies as the Piston turned to Windows 7 for its operating system, instead of Valve’s solutions.

The minuscule detail that lies on this mini PC is the mysterious DP/HDMI port. It is not two separate ports, but rather, a modified DisplayPort receptor that accepts both DisplayPort and HDMI signals. While this sounds like some kind of skunk works project that enables this kind of functionality, it’s probably not the case – as the feature is well implemented in the BIOS that allows automatic detection of whichever protocol it’s dealing with.

As for why this isn’t implemented into every single display output out there, we can only make guesses. One theory is that HDMI isn’t very keen on interoperability, since it’s a proprietary standard that has recently denied a driver fix from AMD for this very reason. It’s likely the same reason why USB-C almost universally uses DisplayPort protocol, despite that HDMI over USB-C technically exists.

Source: The Verge

Pokdepinion: What could have been, right?