Video Electronics Standards Association

VESA (/ˈveɪsə/), formally known as Video Electronics Standards Association, is an American technical standards organization for computer display standards. The organization was incorporated in California in July 1989[1] and has its office in San Jose.[1][2] It claims a membership of over 300 companies.[3]

This article is about the organization. For the display mounting standard, see Flat Display Mounting Interface.
Video Electronics Standards Association
AbbreviationVESA
FormationJuly 1989 (1989-07)
PurposeStandards organization
HeadquartersSan Jose, California, USA
Membership
See list
Websitewww.vesa.org

In November 1988, NEC Home Electronics announced its creation of the association to develop and promote a Super VGA computer display standard as a successor to IBM's proprietary Video Graphics Array (VGA) display standard. Super VGA enabled graphics display resolutions up to 800×600 pixels, compared to VGA's maximum resolution of 640×480 pixels—a 56% increase.[4]

The organization has since issued several additional standards related to computer video displays. Widely used VESA standards include DisplayHDR, DisplayPort, and Flat Display Mounting Interface.

Standards

Company membership

The following major companies are members of VESA.[5]

Criticism

VESA has been criticized for their policy of charging non-members for some of their published standards. Some people believe the practice of charging for specifications has undermined the purpose of VESA. According to Kendall Bennett, developer of the VBE/AF standard, the VESA Software Standards Committee was closed down due to a lack of interest resulting from charging high prices for specifications.[6] At that time no VESA standards were available for free. Although VESA now hosts some free standards documents, the free collection does not include newly developed standards. Even for obsolete standards, the free collection is incomplete. As of 2010, current standards documents from VESA cost hundreds to thousands of dollars each. Some older standards are not available for free, or for purchase. As of 2017, the free downloads require mandatory registration.[7] While not all standards bodies provide specifications freely available for download, many do, including: ITU, JEDEC, DDWG, and HDMI (through HDMI 1.3a).

At the time DisplayPort was announced, VESA was criticized for developing the specification in secret and having a track record of developing unsuccessful digital interface standards, including Plug & Display and Digital Flat Panel.[8]

References
  1. California Secretary of State. "Business Entity Detail: Video Electronics Standards Association". Entity Number C1645094. Archived from the original on March 15, 2015. Retrieved May 27, 2016.To retrieve the information, search for Entity Number C1645094.
  2. Video Electronics Standards Association. "Contact VESA". VESA.org. Retrieved May 27, 2016.
  3. Video Electronics Standards Association. "Mission/Vision". VESA.org. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  4. Brownstein, Mark (November 14, 1988). "NEC Forms Video Standards Group". InfoWorld. Vol. 10, no. 46. p. 3. ISSN 0199-6649. Retrieved May 27, 2016.
  5. "Member Companies". VESA. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
  6. "Re: vm86 in kernel".
  7. "VESA public standards download registration".
  8. "Commentary: Will VESA survive DisplayPort?".
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