VESA, the group responsible for the Display Port standard, has announced some new changes coming in the way of USB data and power connectivity support.
According to a 2014 CES press release, the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) announced that DockPort will be added as an official extension to the existing DisplayPort standard. DockPort is a technology that allows for high speed USB 3.0 data transfer over current DisplayPort connectors. The tech was originally developed by AMD and Texas Instruments in conjunction with VESA, and is said to allow for notebooks, tablets and other smaller computers to integrate display, data and power into a single connector.
The PR suggests we will be seeing the official extension come available in Q2 2014, however it does look as though only the USB 3.0 data transfer integration will be ready by then, not the power connectivity. VESA said that "the new DockPort extension will utilize the flexibility of DisplayPort technology to create a single display, data, and, in the near future, power connector, while still being backward compatible with all other DisplayPort devices." No details on when the power connectivity will be ready have been released at this time, VESA has been quoted as saying the tech is still "under development."
While it can be compared to Thunderbolt, DockPort tech doesn't boast the kind of power achieved by Intel's standard. With that said, the USB 3.0 functionality is likely more viable for the average consumer and reports suggest the royalty-free technology could be significantly cheaper to implement for device manufacturers.