Rivals Intel and AMD Declare in Unison, 'Death to VGA!'
posted Sunday Dec 12, 2010 by Nicholas DiMeo
Hi, I'm an Intel. And I'm an AMD. We don't really get along, nor will we ever agree on nanoprocessors or being hardcore with hexacore. But one thing is for certain: we are sick of analog video display outputs; specifically, VGA!
This week Intel and AMD announced that they are teaming up with the help of Dell, Lenovo, Samsung and LG to completely remove VGA by 2015 and to focus only on HDMI and DisplayPort.
Want more news on the obsoletion? Click the break.
AMD and Intel even wrote a press release together. It's almost Q-cute. (Anyone?)
DisplayPort and HDMI allow for slimmer laptop designs, and support higher resolutions with deeper color than VGA — a technology which is more than 20 years old. Additionally, as laptops get smaller and their embedded flat panel resolutions increase for more immersive experiences, the power advantages, bidirectional communications and design efficiency benefits of DisplayPort make it a superior choice over LVDS, the previous standard for LCD panel inputs.
Both companies plan to move entirely into the digital realm, with AMD's Eric Demers standing fully behind this plan.
Newer standards such as DisplayPort and HDMI clearly provide the best connectivity options moving forward. In our opinion, DisplayPort 1.2 is the future interface for PC monitors, along with HDMI 1.4a for TV connectivity.
The reason this move is happening so rapidly is because computer manufacturers want to get into the 3D technology, too. They want to have HDMI for TVs and DisplayPorts on PC monitors with gamers switching over to real 3D gaming. By removing VGA, this forces consumers - at least in an indirect way - to start looking at some newer computers. We just hope that this holiday season isn't any indication for how well 3D tech will actually do.