The Video Electronics Standards Association joins the USB 3.0 Promoter Group to add DisplayPort Alternate Mode (aka "Alt Mode") to the upcoming USB Type-C standard.

Essentially, Alt Mode adds DisplayPort capabilities to USB Type-C connectors and cables, allowing them the carrying of video signals (up to 4K), SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.1) data and up to 100W of power. It will also feature adapters to support existing DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI and VGA displays.

For the technically curious, VESA says Alt Mode "repurposes some or all of the four existing SuperSpeed USB lanes to deliver full DisplayPort performance, and uses other signaling available in the USB Type-C connector for DisplayPort’s AUX channel and HPD (Hot Plug Detection) function. This enables computers, tablets, smartphones, displays, and docking stations to implement the new USB Type-C connector at both ends while using the DisplayPort Standard over USB Type-C to transmit high-resolution A/V along with USB data and power."

Avnet leverages its SAP HANA and Cisco expertise with next generation converged infrastructure solutions powered by 3rd generation Ivy Bridge Intel Core CPUs and "industry-leading" storage.

Designed for big data and analytics applications, the solutions combine SAP in-memory computing and Cisco blade and rack servers with large-memory capacity, networking and virtualisation. Storage comes in two flavors, EMC VNX 5400 or NetApp FAS8040, with support for up to 16TB of optimised data.

Lenovo announces its 5th generation of enterprise-class servers-- the ThinkServer RD550 and RD650 rack and the ThinkServer TD350 tower servers, all based on Xeon E5-2600 v3 Grantley processors.

The ThinkServer RD550 and RD650 are designed to provide industry-leading connectivity within 1U and 2U form factors, with space-optimised drive bays, chassis and system boards. The RD550 carries up to 12 drive bays for 26.4TB of storage in 1U form, while the 2U RD650 houses up to 26 drive bays and up to 74.4TB of capacity.

Both are available with hybrid chassis configurations allowing a combination of 2.5- and 3.5-inch drives for tiered storage environments. Two enterprise-class M.2 SSDs are available for secure booting, as are SD card options for hypervisor booting. Memory clocks at up to 768GB of DDR4 RAM, and standard built-in reliability features include ECC memory, hot-swappable HDDs and SSDs, and redundant power and cooling.

HP announces the ProLiant Gen9 server portfolio, one the company describes as a "major delivery milestone" optimised for applications such as convergence, cloud and software-defined environments.

Innovations within the servers include HP-unique PCIe accelerators, DDR4 SmartMemory, SmartCache, FlexFabric adapters converged management across servers, storage and networking, and embedded management including UEFI and RESTful APIs for hybrid cloud environments.

The range covers 4 architectures-- blade, rack, tower and scale-out, allowing customers boost compute capacity and efficiency across multiple workloads, accelerate IT service delivery and improve workload performance.