Consumers have made one thing clear about the tech industry over the past several years: format wars are confusing and often times deliver more issues than solutions. Display technologies consisting of DisplayPort, HDMI and UDI have all been ferociously vying for industry support over the past two years. Despite a strong push from all three standards, DisplayPort crossed a major milestone in April when it received approval by VESA to be an industry standard.

The big question on most consumers' minds however, is the proliferation of products that actually use the DisplayPort standard.

This week at a business strategy meeting at Dell, the company showed off what it calls the next generation in LCD displays. Dell demonstrated a prototype LCD panel based on DisplayPort. DisplayPort has several advantages that will allow manufacturers to design thinner LCD panels,  Dell's chief technology officer Kevin Kettler said.

Kettler showed a LCD that was only half an inch in thickness. The panel also incorporated speakers and a microphone. Audio and video signals route through a single DisplayPort cable. DisplayPort LCD panels will be available later this year, Kettler claims.

The DisplayPort standard recently wowed consumers by adopting a standard that takes advantage of fiber optic cables for signaling. Using technology from a leading DisplayPort task force member named Luxtera, DisplayPort devices that use fiber optics will be able to accept cable lengths unheard of in the industry.