The Shenzhen 8K UHD Video Industry Cooperation Alliance, a group made up of more than 50 Chinese companies, just released a new wired media communication standard called the General Purpose Media Interface or GPMI. This standard was developed to support 8K and reduce the number of cables required to stream data and power from one device to another. According to HKEPC, the GPMI cable comes in two flavors — a Type-B that seems to have a proprietary connector and a Type-C that is compatible with the USB-C standard.
Because 8K has four times the number of pixels of 4K and 16 times more pixels than 1080p resolution, it means that GPMI is built to carry a lot more data than other current standards. There are other variables that can impact required bandwidth, of course, such as color depth and refresh rate. The GPMI Type-C connector is set to have a maximum bandwidth of 96 Gbps and deliver 240 watts of power. This is more than double the 40 Gbps data limit of USB4 and Thunderbolt 4, allowing you to transmit more data on the cable. However, it has the same power limit as that of the latest USB Type-C connector using the Extended Power Range (EPR) standard.
GPMI Type-B beats all other cables, though, with its maximum bandwidth of 192 Gbps and power delivery of up to 480 watts. While still not a level where you can use it to power your RTX 5090 gaming PC through your 8K monitor, it’s still more than enough for many gaming laptops with a high-end discrete graphics. This will simplify the desk setup of people who prefer a portable gaming computer, since you can use one cable for both power and data. Aside from that, the standard also supports a universal control standard like HDMI-CEC, meaning you can use one remote control for all appliances that connect via GPMI and use this feature.
The only widely used video transmission standards that also deliver power right now are USB Type-C (Alt DP/Alt HDMI) and Thunderbolt connections. However, this is mostly limited to monitors, with many TVs still using HDMI. If GPMI becomes widely available, we’ll soon be able to use just one cable to build our TV and streaming setup, making things much simpler.
