Samsung: Goodbye VGA and DVI, Hello USB

At CeBIT next month, Samsung will be unveiling the SyncMaster 940UX, a 19'' LCD monitor that simplifies connections by chucking the DVI and VGA connectors and instead using everybody's pal, USB. The monitor is due for a May release, initially for Windows XP with Vista drivers to follow later.

The most obvious advantage to a USB monitor is that USB cables are remarkably easy to connect and disconnect, which eliminates one more obstacle for the technophobic. Multiple monitors can also be installed quickly and easily, without the need for a higher-end graphics card.

But Samsung is mum on one important detail: If the graphics are coming out of the USB port, then where is the processing taking place? Odds are it's the CPU, so just how much of a performance hit will you take if you're powering multiple monitors? (Samsung claims a maximum of three for multimedia, five for less intensive purposes.) Hopefully this question, among others, will be answered as CeBIT approaches.

[Merci, Digital World.]