In late 2003, Dell brought together a group of leading PC, graphics, and semiconductor companies to plan a new digital display interface standard to meet future demands on the interface and to reduce display cost and complexity. The goal was to develop an open-standards based, royaltyfree, and extensible interface suited for both external desktop monitor and internal display interfaces, and to have it ready for implementation in products in 2006. The new interface would replace the proprietary digital visual interface (DVI) used between the PC and an external display, as well as the legacy low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS) interface used inside notebook computers, monitors, and TVs to connect to LCD panels.

Rather than manage and license the specification itself, as was the case with DVI, the group took the unusual step of relinquishing control of the specification to an established display industry standards organization— the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA®)1. The DisplayPort proposal was introduced to the VESA in August 2005 and the resulting standard was published
May 3, 2006.

The open standards-based DisplayPort interface offers advantages over the proprietary DVI and legacy LVDS interfaces because it enables more-affordable liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors, scales in performance to meet requirements across the whole range of PC display applications from entry level displays to high performance upsells, and supports future display innovation through its micropacket architecture.