VESA Display Power Management Signaling


VESA Display Power Management Signaling is a standard from the VESA consortium for power management of video monitors. Example usage includes turning off, or putting the monitor into standby after a period of idle time to save power. Some commercial displays also incorporate this technology.

History

VESA issued DPMS 1.0 in 1993, basing their work on the United States Environmental Protection Agency's earlier Energy Star power management specifications. Subsequent revisions were included in future VESA BIOS Extensions.

Design

The standard defines how to signal the H-sync and V-sync pins in a standard SVGA monitor to trigger the monitor's power saving capabilities.
DPMS defines four modes; normal, standby, suspended and off. When in the "off" state some power may still be drawn in order to power indicator lights.
The standard is:
StateH-syncV-syncPowerRecovery Time
On100%n/a
Stand-by< 80%~1 Sec.
Suspend< 30W~5 Sec.
Off< 8W~20 Sec.