VESA Releases Compliance Test Specification Model for DisplayPort Automotive Extensions Standard

New software model and FPGA validation platforms, which are designed to accelerate implementation of new standard in automotive displays, will be showcased at SID Display Week

BEAVERTON, Ore. – May 7, 2025 – The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA^®) today announced that it has released a new Compliance Test Specification (CTS) software model for its DisplayPort Automotive Extensions (DP AE) specification. Featuring more than 500 tests for functional safety and security compliance testing, the new, fully executable Linux C-model allows silicon manufacturers to begin building and testing video source (electronic control unit/ECU), bridge (e.g., serializer/deserializer) and sink (e.g., timing controller) devices for automotive displays based on the VESA DP AE specification.

Designed to support the latest versions of DisplayPort (version 2.1a) and Embedded DisplayPort (eDP, version 1.5a), VESA’s DP AE standard provides support for end-to-end automotive display functional safety (FuSa) and security. The DP AE standard supports compressed and uncompressed video as well as Multi-Stream Transport (MST) for up to 16 display regions of interest. It represents the first standard for vehicle displays that can enable display safety engineers to achieve ISO 26262 ASIL-D* – the holy grail of electronic safety integrity.

VESA will showcase FPGA-platform demonstrations from MediaTek and other members using the new CTS C-model to validate the DP AE standard at the Display Week 2025 Expo (booth #1745), taking place next week, May 13-15, at the San Jose Convention Center.

DisplayPort Uniquely Suited for Automotive Displays

As vehicles become more advanced and connected, the number of high-resolution interior displays in automobiles is on the rise. These displays provide a wide variety of critical information that drivers need to operate their vehicles safely and efficiently. Most automotive displays currently use DisplayPort or eDP to carry video data from the central vehicle computer, or ECU, to the displays. In addition to its high video bandwidth capability, DisplayPort features MST, which enables multiple displays to be connected to a single DP source port. However, until the introduction of VESA’s DP AE standard, there was no standardized way to verify that the data transmitted from the ECU was received by the display in the same way that it was sent, ensuring it is free of noise injection errors and has not been the target of malicious tampering.

VESA’s DP AE standard addresses this need by adding critical safety and security protocols on top of the existing DisplayPort 2.1a and eDP 1.5a spec. It features a mandatory FuSa profile for the main data path and metadata that uses very-high-safety-rated cyclical redundancy check (CRC) polynomial mathematical signatures for every frame of video data across the data path. This ensures that a frame never gets dropped or repeated so that critical events are always captured and never missed. The protocol also features more advanced optional profiles that provide FuSa for the DisplayPort Aux channel, which carries command and control data for the video source device; security authentication and integrity checking on the data path, to prevent unauthorized tampering with the video data or the physical displays themselves; and encryption of the DisplayPort Aux channel, to prevent hackers from reading information on the types of displays in the vehicles that could be used to tamper with the displays.

“The automotive industry requires advanced, safe, and secure display interfaces meeting ISO 26262 ASIL-D standards,” stated James Goel, DisplayPort Automotive Extension Lead and VESA board member. “VESA’s DisplayPort Automotive Extensions specification directly fulfills this critical need. VESA’s new Compliance Test Specification C-model accelerates validation and adoption of DP AE, enabling faster integration into automotive displays. We encourage silicon IP providers to begin validation testing now and automotive vendors to join VESA, shaping and incorporating cutting-edge display technologies into future vehicle platforms.”

According to Brian Turner, president of BTA Design Services, “BTA Design Services is excited to be at the forefront of technology innovation, collaborating with VESA and its member companies from the very start of the DisplayPort Automotive Extension standard. As a key contributor, we take pride in architecting and developing the DP AE Compliance Test Specification reference C-model and delivering leading-edge, standards-compliant IP designed for Q4 2025 silicon deployment. We look forward to showcasing an early release of our DP AE IP in Q2 2025.”

For More Information

More information on the VESA DisplayPort Automotive Extensions specification can be found at https://www.displayport.org/automotive/.

* ISO 26262 is an international functional safety standard for road vehicles that addresses hazards caused by the malfunctioning behavior of electronic and electrical systems installed in the vehicles. Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL), specified under the ISO 26262, is a risk classification scheme for defining the safety requirements. ASIL values are established by performing a risk analysis of a potential hazard by looking at the Severity, Exposure and Controllability of the vehicle operating scenario, with ASIL-D being the highest safety integrity level.

About VESA

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) is an international, non-profit standards association representing a global network of more than 340 hardware, software, computer, display and component manufacturers committed to developing and promoting the electronics industry. For more than 30 years, VESA has created and supported simple, universal and cross-product solutions for today’s video and electronics industry. The association’s standards include DisplayPort™, the industry replacement for DVI, LVDS and VGA. DisplayPort utilizes a state-of-the-art digital protocol and provides an expandable foundation to enable astonishing digital display experiences. For more information on VESA, please visit http://www.vesa.org/.