We’ve already been charmed by the new reversible USB Type C connector that is scheduled to start appearing in gadgets by the end of the year, but today we have even more reason to love the upcoming connector.
The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) has been working with the guys over at the USB 3.0 Promoter Group to bring its Display Port technology to the new USB standard.
What that means for us is that the USB Type C cable will be able to transmit audio and video, even 4k video and beyond, over its connection while still transmitting data and power over the same cable. To transmit the visuals a few of the four USB SuperSpeed lanes are used to carry the video signal leaving the rest open to transfer data so a single USB C connection to a dock would then allow you to split the connection off to a 4k monitor and still get a full 10Gbps data connection to an external hard drive without skipping a beat.
Even more good news for us is that a host of adapters will be made available so that your existing Display Port, HDMI, VGA and DVI connections can still be used in conjunction with the new USB Type C port and cables. And since 1080p video is much less data intensive than 4k video you could theoretically get a multimonitor set up running off of just one video output cable making arriving at the office as simple as plugging in once.
Hopefully we start seeing the new USB Type C sooner rather than later in all sorts of electronics and applications.
[Source – VESA]
