China launches alternative to HDMI and DisplayPort cables

The Shenzhen 8K UHD Video Industry Cooperation Alliance, which includes more than 50 Chinese companies, has introduced its new leading standard called General Purpose Media Interface (GPMI). It is designed to simplify the connection of devices and provide sufficient data for 8K content, as well as power over the same cable line. According to the HKEPC data, there are two versions of GPMI: Type-B with its own connector and Type-C compatible with the USB-C standard.

Tom's Hardware writes about it.

Everything we know about the new GPMI standard that could replace HDMI

Due to the fact that an 8K picture has four times the pixels of a 4K picture and 16 times the pixels of a 1080p picture, the new standard is designed to transmit a much larger data stream than existing solutions.

Of course, other parameters such as color depth and refresh rate also affect the bandwidth. For the GPMI Type-C connector, the manufacturer declares a speed of up to 96 Gbps and a power of 240 W. This is more than double the bandwidth of USB4 or Thunderbolt 4 (40 Gbps), although the maximum power supply is roughly in line with the current USB Type-C Extended Power Range (EPR) standard.

GPMI Type-B, on the other hand, outperforms all other cables, offering up to 192 Gbps of bandwidth and 480 W of power delivery. While this isn't yet enough to power the powerful RTX 5090 on a desktop PC with a single cable, it's still enough to power many high-end discrete graphics gaming laptops. This simplifies the workplace, as a single connection for data and power is sufficient.

In addition, GPMI allows you to use a single remote control for multiple devices, as the standard supports a universal control system such as HDMI-CEC.

Currently, the only common video connectors that provide both image and power are USB Type-C (Alt DP/Alt HDMI) and Thunderbolt. But it's usually limited to monitors, while the vast majority of TVs stick to HDMI. If GPMI becomes widespread, it will be possible to significantly simplify the connection of TVs and streaming devices by limiting it to one cable instead of several.

As a reminder, Android devices are capable of recording what is happening on the screen. Recently, developers have expanded this feature by adding the ability to record from an external monitor connected via an HDMI cable.

We also wrote that modern TVs have long since turned into real multimedia centers. One of their useful elements is USB ports, which you might not have even noticed.