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There’s nothing magic about DP cables, they’re just typically a short-ish length, which is why they can be high bandwidth and relatively cheap. Once you get to
by xienze 3y ago
There’s nothing magic about DP cables, they’re just typically a short-ish length, which is why they can be high bandwidth and relatively cheap. Once you get to a decent length, the cables get really expensive because you have to put optical transceivers on either side. I have a 25 foot DP cable which cost over $100, for example.
So you could do a short length, high bandwidth Ethernet cable, I’m sure. But the reason we don’t is probably because differentiation between connectors is desired —- consumers are dumb, frankly. They’ll think any old Ethernet cable will work. Just look at what kind of a mess exists with USBC.
- ianburrell 3y agoThe commonality of connector is important. Ethernet has stopped using twisted pair cables for higher speeds. The SFP transceiver means can use short DAC copper cable or fiber optics for longer distances. The DAC cables that would compete with DisplayPort are pretty cheap. Also, a big portion of the cost of networking is in the switch that can handle high bandwidths. My guess is that 25G DisplayPort switch would be just as expensive as 25G SFP one.
- aidenn0 3y agoYeah, my original comment was based on the "100x more expensive" assertion. a 5m DAC cable is $40 on Amazon, and 25GBe cards can be had for under $200. I think it's probably more than $2.40 for just a 5m DP cable, so 100x was a gross exaggeration.