The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) is an international body, founded in the late 1980s by NEC Home Electronics and eight other video display adapter manufacturers. The initial goal was to produce a standard for 800x600 SVGA resolution video displays. Since then VESA has issued a number of standards, mostly relating to the function of video peripherals in IBM PC compatible computers. NEC Corporation (Jp. ... Super Video Graphics Array, almost always abbreviated to Super VGA or just SVGA is a broad term that covers a wide range of computer display standards. ... A peripheral is a type of computer hardware that is added to a host computer in order to expand its abilities. ... IBM PC (IBM 5150) with keyboard and green screen monochrome monitor (IBM 5151), running MS-DOS 5. ... A BlueGene supercomputer cabinet. ...

Among VESA's standards:

• VESA Feature Connector (VFC), obsoleted connector that was often present on older videocards, used as an 8-bit video bus to other devices
• VESA Advanced Feature Connector (VAFC), newer version of the above VFC that widens the 8-bit bus to either a 16-bit or 32-bit bus.
• VESA Local Bus (VLB), once used as a fast video bus (akin to the modern AGP).
• VESA BIOS Extensions (VBE), used for enabling standard support for advanced video modes (at high resolutions and color depths)
• Display Data Channel (DDC), allowing monitors to identify themselves to the video boards they're attached to. The format of the actual identification data is however called extended display identification data (EDID).
• VESA Display Power Management Signaling, which allows monitors to be queried on the types of power saving modes they support
• A number of standards relating to flat-panel screens, video connectors, video cable timings etc.
• Digital Packet Video Link
• Flat Display Mounting Interface (FDMI), which defines "VESA mounts"
• General Timing Formula (GTF) video timings standard
• Coordinated Video Timings standard (CVT)
• VESA Video Interface Port (VIP), a digital video interface standard.
• DisplayPort Standard, a digital video interface standard.

The VESA feature connector (VFC) is a connector on videocards that is used to transfer video data from the card to another device, made by VESA. The connector was defaultly supplied with every videocard, until it was no longer needed. ... The Feature connector was an internal connector found mostly in some older VESA Local Bus, ISA and PCI graphics cards, but also on some early AGP ones. ... The VESA Local Bus (usually shortened to VLB) is a local bus defined by the Video Electronics Standards Association, mostly used in personal computers based on the Intel 80486 CPU. VESA Local Bus worked alongside the ISA bus; it acted as a high-speed conduit for memory-mapped I/O... The Accelerated Graphics Port (also called Advanced Graphics Port) is a high-speed point-to-point channel for attaching a graphics card to a computers motherboard, primarily to assist in the acceleration of 3D computer graphics. ... VESA BIOS Extensions (VBE) comprise a VESA standard, currently at version 3, that defines the interface that can be used by software to access compliant video boards at high resolutions and bit depths. ... The Display Data Channel or DDC is a digital connection between a computer display and a graphics adapter that allows the display to communicate its specifications to the adapter. ... Extended display identification data (EDID) is a data structure provided by a computer display to describe its capabilities to a graphics card. ... VESA Display Power Management Signaling (or DPMS) is a standard from the VESA consortium for managing the power supply of video monitors for computers through the graphics card. ... Digital Packet Video Link is a new video standard from VESA . ... The Flat Display Mounting Interface (FDMI) is a VESA standard for mounting flat panel monitors, TVs and other displays. ... DisplayPort is a new display interface standard being put forth by the Video Electronics Standards Association. ...

Criticisms

VESA have charged high price for published standards, which have prevented the propagation of the supposed open standards.[1] VESA Software Standards Committee was closed down as a result of such practice. Althogh nowadays VESA have hosted free standards, the collection rarely (if ever) include newly developed standards. Even for obsolete standards, the collection is incomplete. The secretive practices persist even when competing standard committees are offering their specifications free of charge. As of 2006, a document (even those offered freely by VESA) can cost hundreds of dollars, and the only way to get some of the older standards (assuming they are still on sale) is through those already have the printed versions.

See also

• VESA website
• VESA standards page