A new type of connector to get everyone on the same wavelength?
At present, we use two main standards to manage our displays. On the one hand, we have HDMI ( High-Definition Multimedia Interface ), developed by the HDMI Licensing Administration, a group bringing together video specialists such as Hitachi, Panasonic, Philips, Sony and Toshiba. The standard is well known and can be found on just about every TV on the market. On the other hand, we have DisplayPort, developed by the Video Electronics Standards Association and supported by more tech-oriented companies (AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, Samsung...): this is the standard of choice for all computer display connectivity, and you're bound to have come across it on one computer or another.
Today, a third party has joined the fray with the arrival of GPMI or General Purpose Media Interface, developed in China by the Shenzhen 8K UHD Video Industry Cooperation Alliance, which brings together a number of Chinese companies with the aim of creating a new standard which, it has to be said, already has a number of advantages to offer. First and foremost, the technical performance of this new standard is enough to make HDMI and DisplayPort tremble. Indeed, GPMI boasts a maximum bandwidth of 192 Gbit/s, while DisplayPort 2.1 caps at 80 Gbit/s and HDMI 2.2 at 96 Gbit/s. Better still, while the two well-established standards don't allow any device to be powered, GPMI offers a maximum power of 480 watts. Fortunately for HDMI and DisplayPort, GPMI requires a specific connector - Type-B - to achieve such values.
That said, the Shenzhen 8K UHD Video Industry Cooperation Alliance seems to have thought of everything, since a second variant of GPMI - Type-C - uses a USB-format port, so it will logically be much easier to get all manufacturers to accept it. What's more, this Type-C variant still has a lot to offer, with a bandwidth that, like HDMI 2.2, reaches 96 Gbit/s, while allowing power supply to devices up to 240 watts - the maximum permitted by USB 4. Only Thunderbolt 5 (120 Gbit/s, 240 watts) seems able to compete, but it remains very rare. Given the ever-increasing influence of Chinese manufacturers, it's hard to imagine a future in which HDMI and DisplayPort have completely disappeared, supplanted by this GPMI, which we'll have to wait and see if you have to pay a license fee to enjoy.
