MIPI Display Serial Interface (MIPI DSI)

The MIPI Display Serial Interface (MIPI DSI^SM) defines a high-speed serial interface between a host processor and a display module. The interface enables manufacturers to integrate displays to achieve high performance, low power, and low electromagnetic interference (EMI) while reducing pin count and maintaining compatibility across different vendors. Designers can use MIPI DSI to facilitate brilliant color rendering for the most demanding imagery and video scenes and to support transmission of stereoscopic content.

MIPI DSI has been widely adopted. It is ubiquitous in smartphones and also being used in tablets, laptops and laptop/tablet hybrids. It is also being implemented by the automotive industry for dashboard displays and in-car infotainment systems, and used in wearables, IoT and virtual/augmented reality applications.

MIPI DSI operates on the MIPI D-PHY physical layer. It uses a command set defined in the MIPI Display Command Set (MIPI DCS). It also incorporates the Display Stream Compression (DSC) Standard from the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). Overall, the feature set of MIPI DSI is quite similar to that of the more recent MIPI DSI-2 specification, which offers support for both D-PHY and C-PHY.

MIPI DSI is developed by the MIPI Display Working Group. The latest MIPI DSI update, v1.3.1, was released in 2015. 

Note: The specification is available only to MIPI Alliance members. For information about MIPI Alliance membership, visit Join MIPI.