MIPI Alliance Releases Serial Interface Standard for Display Panels in Mobile Phones.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- Mobile industry to converge onto MIPI Display Serial Interface (DSI) Specification, improving interoperability and reducing cost of display sub-systems in mobile devices

The Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) Alliance today announced the release of its Display Serial Interface (DSI) Specification. Implementations of this industry standard will reduce pin count, power consumption and system costs while expanding display panel interoperability in mobile devices. The MIPI Alliance Board has also approved a Display Command Set (DCS) Specification.

Motivated by the fragmentation wrought by incompatible proprietary interfaces, the MIPI Alliance brings together more than 90 leading companies in pursuit of open standards to converge interfaces inside mobile terminals. DSI and DCS are the latest in a series of MIPI Standards published or planned by the MIPI Alliance to achieve this goal.

Optimized Technical Solution

DSI is based upon MIPI's D-PHY physical layer specification, a robust, high-speed, low-power, scalable serial interconnect. This SLVS-based physical layer enables data rates as high as 1 Gbps per differential pair of wires, while generating very little noise, remaining highly robust to external interference, and achieving best-in-class power consumption.

Building upon the core D-PHY technology, DSI adds features to meet the diverse needs of display subsystems in today's rapidly-evolving mobile devices: a variety of low-power modes, bi-directional communication, native support for 16, 18 and 24-bit pixels, the ability to drive up to four display panels from a single interface, and support for both "smart" (buffered) and "video mode" (unbuffered) display panels at resolutions up to XGA.

"This standard brings important benefits to a wide range of mobile systems, from simple low-end devices to highly complex smartphones to larger handheld platforms," said Dick Lawrence, chair of MIPI's Display Working Group. "The mobile industry has been waiting for an open standard to converge upon, and DSI provides the compelling technology to drive that transition."

DCS, the other newly approved display specification, is an application-layer specification for smart display panels.

Broad Industry Support

DSI and DCS were developed through the collaborative efforts of leading handset manufacturers, display manufacturers and semiconductor vendors in the mobile industry.

"Nearly every important supplier or user of this technology played a role in its development," said Tom Vial, Chairman of the Board, MIPI Alliance, Inc. "Given those highly collaborative origins, we're very optimistic that those same companies will soon implement and deploy DSI in their products, leading the industry toward a single preferred solution for display interfaces."

MIPI Alliance Gains Momentum

DSI and DCS represent the third major specification release from MIPI in recent months, complementing MIPI's camera serial interface (CSI-2) and physical layer (D-PHY) specifications released late last year. Later in 2006, two additional MIPI Standards are expected to be finalized, one targeting general-purpose use cases for relatively low-bandwidth peripherals and another targeting high-bandwidth peripherals.

About The MIPI Alliance

The Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) Alliance is a collaboration of mobile industry leaders with the objective to define and promote open standards for interfaces to mobile application processors. Through these open standards, the MIPI Alliance intends to speed deployment of new services to mobile users by establishing specifications for standard hardware and software interfaces to mobile application processors and encouraging the adoption of those standards throughout the industry value chain. The MIPI Alliance is intended to complement existing standards bodies with a focus on microprocessors, peripherals and software interfaces.

About MIPI Specifications

MIPI Specifications are currently available only to MIPI Alliance member companies. Interested companies are welcome to join the MIPI Alliance. Membership includes limited royalty-free intellectual property rights and obligations. For more information on membership in the MIPI Alliance, visit www.mipi.org.

About MIPI Members

More than 90 member companies participate in the MIPI Alliance, including nearly every leading supplier of mobile phones, applications processors, baseband modems, display panels, camera sensors, and audio and power peripherals. A complete list of member companies can be found at www.mipi.org.

Member Support for DSI and DCS

Member testimonials, including quotes from ATI, Broadcom, Freescale Semiconductor, Infineon Technologies, Nokia, Renesas Technology, Philips Semiconductor, Samsung Electronics, Solomon Systech, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments Inc., are available at: http://www.mipi.org/docs/mipi-testimonials-display.pdf

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