DisplayLink

DisplayLink (formerly Newnham Research) is a semiconductor and software technology company. DisplayLink USB graphics technology is designed to connect computers and displays using USB, Ethernet, and WiFi. It also allows multiple displays to be connected to a single computer. DisplayLink's primary customers are notebook OEMs (HP, Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo, Acer, Asus), LCD monitor manufacturers (Samsung, LG, ASUS), projector manufacturers (InFocus) and PC accessory vendors (Targus, Kensington, Plugable), supporting the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems.^[1] DisplayLink has seen rapid adoption of their USB graphics solutions and have shipped over two million USB graphics chips into the peripherals market.^[2]

DisplayLink operates worldwide with offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Poland, and Taiwan.^[3] The company is privately funded and to date has raised $75 million in financing from venture capital organizations Atlas Venture, Balderton Capital, Cipio Partners DAG Ventures and DFJ Esprit.^[4]

Company history

DisplayLink was founded in 2003 as Newnham Research by Dr. Quentin Stafford-Fraser and Martin King.^[5] The Newnham Research team invented NIVO (Network In, Video Out) designed for low cost thin client computing over Ethernet networks.^[6] The company referred to these thin-client computers as network displays.

In 2006, Newnham Research launched its first commercially-available product in partnership with the Kensington Computer Products Group: a USB 2.0 universal laptop docking station designed for the retail market.^[7]

In November 2006, Newnham Research renamed itself to DisplayLink, a name that better described their display connection technology.^[8]

DisplayLink launched its first semiconductor product family, the DL-120 and DL-160 USB 2.0 graphics devices, in January 2007,^[9] signalling an important change in the company's business plan from FPGA-based systems to semiconductors. The DL-120 and DL-160 allow up to six additional monitors to be added to a PC through USB 2.0.

In May 2009, DisplayLink launched its second semiconductor product family, the DL-125, DL-165, and DL-195 USB 2.0 graphics devices. This DL-1x5 family brings improved performance, an increase in maximum resolution to 2048x1152, and the integration of a DVI transmitter and video DAC. The first products to ship with the new DL-1x5 chips were the Samsung Lapfit LD190G and LD220G monitors.^[10]

On November 17, 2009, DisplayLink announced their first Thin Client product based on their USB 2.0 virtual graphics technology, designed for Microsoft Windows MultiPoint Server.^[11] Thin client manufacturer HP was the first to announce a product based on DisplayLink USB Graphics technology with the launch of the t100 Thin Client.^[12]

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 2012, DisplayLink announced several products incorporating video and graphics over a USB 3.0 "SuperSpeed USB" connection, showing substantial improvements in performance, resolution support, and video quality.^[13]

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 2013, DisplayLink demonstrated USB Power Delivery in which a standard USB cable is used to charge a laptop computer.^[14]

Technology

The DisplayLink network graphics technology is composed of Virtual Graphics Card (VGC) software that is installed on a PC and a Hardware Rendering Engine (HRE) embedded or connected to a display device. The DisplayLink VGC software is based on a proprietary adaptive graphics technology. The VGC software runs on a Windows or Mac OS X host PC and takes information from the graphics adapter and compresses the changes to the display from the last update and sends it over any standard network including USB, Wireless USB, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi. After receiving the data, the HRE then transforms it back into pixels to be displayed on the monitor. While the basic network graphics technology can be used on a variety of network interfaces (Ethernet, and Wi-Fi), DisplayLink has to date only designed products around USB 2.0, USB 3.0, and Wireless USB connectivity.^[15]

Products with DisplayLink technology are somehow supported on Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP and Mac OS X.^[16]

The Linux kernel 3.4 also contains a DisplayLink driver, but current generation USB3 chips are not supported as of Sep 2014. It looks like no current DisplayLink-chip will ever work under Linux ^[17] due to intended encryption.

There was a DisplayLink-supported open source project called libdlo with the goal of bringing support to Linux and other platforms.^[18] There are also unofficial reverse-engineered specifications available for older revisions of DisplayLink technology.^[19]

IC Generations

DL-1x0

The DL-1x0 family were the first generation of DisplayLink ICs, launched in January 2007. The family consisted of 2 products: DL-120 and DL-160, differentiated by the maximum resolution supported by the device. DL-120 supported up to 1280x1024/1400x1050 and DL-160 up to 1600x1200/1680x1050.

The ICs supported a USB 2.0 input and a 24bit RGB output or LVDS output. Additional chips needed in the design are an EEPROM and DDR Memory. If the design required an Analog RGB (VGA) or DVI output an additional chip was needed to convert the 24bit RGB output to VGA or DVI.^[20]

The DisplayLink website no longer shows the DL-1x0 ICs available, so are presumed to be no longer available (as of February 2013).

DL-1x5

The DL_1x5 family were introduced in May 2009. The family consists of 4 products: DL-115, DL-125, DL-165 and DL-195, again differentiated by the maximum resolution supported by the device. Features of the DL-1x5 family are:^[21]

• Integrated DVI, VGA, TTL and LVDS (FPI)
• Dual core design (DL-195/DL-165)
• Maximum resolution supported: 2048 x 1152
• Integrated USB 2.0
• DisplayLink DL 2+ Compression

DL-3x00

The DL-3x00 family was first demonstrated at IDF in September 2011.^[22] It supports dual video outputs (DL-3900 only) and integrated 5.1 audio and Gigabit Ethernet. It also integrated a new compression scheme, called DL3.0 and content protection using HDCP 2.0 encryption.^[23]

The DL-3x00 IC won the Best of CES Innovations 2011 Design and Engineering Award Honoree.^[24]

Criticism

Customers have complained that DisplayLink has not responded to 10.8 Mac OS X problems in a timely manner,^[25] however DisplayLink has responded to this criticism and has recently announced a new Mac driver^[26] to support all current USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 products. However, the release of Mavericks and Yosemite again caused significant issues with DisplayLink products on Mac OS X. An article on the company's website lays the blame with Apple.^[27]

Customers have also complained that DisplayLink USB3 video certified technologies have falsely advertise support for Linux, or not stated that it is OS dependent when running the Display link 3xxx/41xx chipset. Displaylink has attempted to correct this by stating they do not support 3xxx and 41xx chipset for Linux.^[28] This was corrected after Display link originally listed as "The DL-3000 series currently supports recent Windows platforms including Windows Multipoint Server 2010/2011, with support for Apple Mac OS and Linux scheduled in the near future." in early 2013. These series of chipsets incorporates HDCP 2.0 encryption barring the implementation in open source software. It is intended to support content protection, and DisplayLink has stated that it needs to ensure this remains secure under an open source environment.^[29]

References

External links

• DisplayLink Website
• DisplayLink Software Downloads
• DisplayLink Zero Client Overview
• DisplayLink Mac OS X Software Downloads
• DisplayLink Linux Project (libdlo)
• Unofficial DisplayLink Hardware Specs
• Unofficial DisplayLink Driver