facebook rss twitter

Intel, AMD, Samsung, Dell and Lenovo to retire VGA

by Pete Mason on 9 December 2010, 10:25

Tags: Dell (NASDAQ:DELL), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), Samsung (005935.KS), AMD (NYSE:AMD), Lenovo

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qa3ie

Add to My Vault: x

PC and component manufacturers have been gradually eliminating legacy ports over the last few years, but there's still one hanger-on - the venerable VGA port. Despite the introduction of vastly superior alternatives, the 23 year old interface is still a common sight, especially on netbooks and laptops.

But now it looks like VGA could finally be put to pasture, as Intel, AMD, Samsung, Dell and Lenovo have all committed to replace it with digital alternatives by 2015.

According to Intel's Eric Mentzer, "modern digital display interfaces like DisplayPort and HDMI enhance the consumer visual PC experience by immersing them with higher resolutions and deeper colours - all at lower power - to enhance battery life for laptops".

The plan is to drop support for LVDS by 2013 with native VGA support being removed from new products over the course of the following two years. This also means that DVI-I - the dual-purpose analog and digital version of the interface - will be phased out in the same time frame. DisplayPort will then take over for PC monitors, with HDMI being used to connect to TVs.

The announcement does acknowledge that VGA monitors will still be around for quite a while, and that the legacy interface will be a necessary part of desktop computing far beyond 2015. However, the companies will push the adoption of alternative interfaces and encourage the use of certified DisplayPort adapters with older screens.

With AMD and Intel accounting for the majority of graphics processors and having a large say in the design of system boards, they certainly have the clout to dictate which interfaces we all use. Especially in laptops, VGA and LVDS are likely to be pretty scarce by the time we get to the middle of the decade.



HEXUS Forums :: 11 Comments

Login with Forum Account

Don't have an account? Register today!
This is a good move. (Now scrap the BIOS.)
Nooooo, it's so not! I don't want to upgrade my monitor again in five years' time just because someone's decided the interface is out of date!

Erm, actually, five years is quite a long time, isn't it.

I'll get my coat ;)

(and hey, my CRT will still be supported by DisplayPort + active dongle, so it's not all gloom and doom!)
baius
This is a good move. (Now scrap the BIOS.)

Bios is going. UEFI is comeing very soon. Of course you will need linux or win7 at least to support it. (Apple are using it atm)

As for the monitors. About bloody time too. I still see cheap nice monitors selling with vga only. I refuse to buy a dying interface. Also DVI->vga convertors hanging off theback of my card is ugly.

HDMI/Displayport should be pushed for the masses to make the home consumer issues simpler.
As far as I'm concerned, VGA should have begun phasing out 5 years ago, nevermind 5 years in the future. About bloody time.
baius
This is a good move. (Now scrap the BIOS.)

Slowly dude … ASUS just showcased recently about CMOS less BIOS I believe