The HDMI Forum and VESA had announcements for the upcoming HDMI 2.2 and DisplayPort 2.1b respectively at CES 2025 mostly to introduce future cables supporting higher bandwidth of up to 96 Gbps for the Ultra96 HDMI cable and 80Gps for the DP80LL cables.
HDMI 2.2 and Ultra96 cable
We don’t have that many details yet, and both were announcements about the future release of specifications. HDMI Forum explained that version 2.2 of HDMI specification will handle up to 96Gbps bandwidth (double the 48Gbps supported by HDMI 2.1) and support next-gen HDMI Fixed Rate Link technology to “provide optimal audio and video for a wide range of device applications” as well as Latency Indication Protocol (LIP) for improving audio and video synchronization, notably in audio video receivers or soundbars. The higher bandwidth will be especially useful for data-intensive, immersive, and virtual applications such as AR/VR/MR, spatial reality, and light field displays, as well as various commercial applications such as large-scale digital signage, medical imaging, and machine vision. The 96Gbps bandwidth will require a certified Ultra96 cable. That’s about all we know right now, and HDMI 2.x adopters will be notified of the HDMI 2.2 specification released later in H1 2025. The press release may have a few more details, and I’ve just noticed a press resources page with useful information.
The table above shows when the new Ultra96 cable may become useful: 4K @ 480 FPS (depends on chroma), 8K @ 240 FPS (all chromas), 10K @ 48-60 FPS (10-bit and higher), and 12K @ 50 FPS (all chromas). 16K is now shown, but it will likely need such cables at any resolution. In other words, the vast majority of people won’t need an Ultra96 cable any time soon… The HDMI Forum even mentions that the next generation of TVs will support 4K @ 240 Hz, and an Ultra96 cable is not required for those unless, I suppose, DSC compression is disabled. Yet we’re told the new Ultra96 cables will become available in Q3 or Q4 2025.
DisplayPort 2.1b and DP80LL cable
The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) announced that it is working on the new DP80LL (“low loss”) ultra-high-bit-rate (UHBR) cables with its members to enable up to four-lane UHBR20 link rate support for a maximum throughput of 80 Gbps over an active cable up to three meters in length.
The DP80LL cable will be part of the DisplayPort version 2.1b specification to be released in Q2 2025, and provide for up to 3 times the cable length for UHBR20 GPU-to-display connections compared to existing DP80 passive cables which are limited to one meter at this bitrate.
VESA-certified DP80LL cables will become available in the next few months, but the company is showcasing samples of pre-certified DP80LL cables and DisplayPort 2.1 UHBR20 solutions at CES 2025, and is working with NVIDIA to make sure their GPUs support the new standard. There’s even less information about DisplayPort 2.1b than HDMI 2.2, and all I could find is in the press release.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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