HDMI cable
frequency (RF) coaxial cable, composite video, or VGA. HDMI digital signals are backwards compatible with DVI (same electrical
A rugged overmolded and Santoprene-jacketed Glenair cable with a USB-C connector, designed to attach to a Juggernaut tactical EUD case.
definition, called Transmission-Minimized Differential Signaling, or TMDS). In both cases, the data stream is a combination of image data, audio data, and control information (for instance mute commands and color compatibility information). All this data is transferred over 4 high-speed differential pairs (requiring 12 pins in the connector because each pair has a ground pin). There are 7 additional pins in the connectors for separate communication channels. These are dedicated to handling specific consumer electronics situations (Audio Return, Digital Rights Protection, an Ethernet link to reduce cable clutter, and an interface for remote controls). The protocol does not specify a maximum length but a link loss. DisplayPort DisplayPort is a digital display interface standard. The specification defines a digital interconnect and data transmission for audio and video. The interface is primarily used to connect a video source to a display device such as a computer monitor (as opposed to HDMI which was originally meant for consumer entertainment systems). DisplayPort is considered more versatile than HDMI, and is able to support higher image resolutions with the same number of lanes. It also allows more flexibility with computers supporting multiple displays, which may have different resolutions.
Unlike HDMI and DVI, DisplayPort runs at fixed data transmission rates and ‘stuffs’ the channels if the full rate is not used. The standard transmission rates for each digital pair in DisplayPort are 1.62Gb/s (Reduced Bandwidth Rate or RBR), 2.7 Gb/s (High Bandwidth Rate or HBR), 5.4 Gb/s (HBR2), 8.1 Gb/s (HBR3). Future versions will add 10, 13.5 and 20 Gb/s lanes. USB-C The promise of USB-C is that it can potentially carry all the popular peripheral protocols in a single package (Ethernet, USB, DisplayPort and HDMI) as well as provide a battery charging capability. USB-C is not a single-protocol connector, rather a platform that can support multiple data and power formats. The hardware implementation consists essentially on a double USB 3.X connector, with additional discrete pins used for the connections required by HDMI and DisplayPort. The connector pin-out looks identical when flipped 180 degrees. When packaged with an orientation key, all lines can be used for signal or power transmission. The result is either a USB connector that can be plugged in “upside-down”, or a display connector that is used in only one orientation. The USB-C connector accommodates 6 differential pairs, 3 on either side (4 are shielded high-speed lanes, 2 support legacy USB 2.0 data). Interspersed among those pairs are 8 discrete pins for power and auxiliary functions. The four corner pins are signal ground pins for the SuperSpeed pair shields. The interleaving separates the high-speed data streams and improves the crosstalk performance. USB-C connectors are also compatible with Thunderbolt 3, another data transmission protocol for displays and storage devices. PCIe PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect express) is an inside-the-box, board-level protocol. In this context, the term “interconnect” does not refer to a mechanical connector, but rather to the link between logical units. The PCIe protocol is the data bus your
DisplayPort resolutions:The straight lines indicate screen resolutions for given aspect ratios, the curved lines show the theoretical limit of various interconnects.
QwikConnect • July 2020
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