Solving The Bandwidth Crisis: How Khushboo Yadav Is Powering The Next Generation Of Displays

The year 2025 marked a new era of visual immersion with the mass-market introduction of the Mixed Reality (MR) headsets and high-frame-rate 8K monitors. That lightning-fast commercial adoption, however, exposed the industry's greatest weakness: an appalling data bandwidth shortage. Older technologies, including DisplayPort and HDMI, are frankly no longer able to handle the required amount of information by the new devices without unacceptable lag and breakdown.

Khushboo Kumari Yadav tackles one of the most pressing issues in visual tech. Her work on data transfer specifications, namely DisplayPort 2.1 and HDMI 2.1, is key. The work underlies the infrastructure behind next-generation visual systems, enabling them to reach their full potential. Yadav is set to make her case on the future direction of visual technologies and the extensions already incorporated into next-generation graphics systems, with continuous advances in display tech. 

Thank you for joining us today, Khushboo. To begin with, would you like to discuss what you are currently working on at Intel and how it relates to the requirements of next-generation visual displays?

My key role at Intel as a Software Enabling and Optimization Engineer is to make our display technologies pass the rigorous bandwidth demands of the market. That entails high-definition visual systems, such as 8K monitors and the latest Embedded DisplayPort displays, incorporated into laptops.

Most of my work is spent solving complex technical problems. I work directly with key customers, debugging and generating solutions for challenging graphics problems involving DisplayPort and HDMI connections, to ensure fault-free product performance on these demanding real-world displays. Significant is the emphasis on future readiness. I actively participate in industry forums to influence the development of data transfer technologies and standards integration protocols, ensuring our technology runs seamlessly over next-generation connectors, such as Type-C and Thunderbolt. My job is to connect external customer needs with internal engineering strengths to achieve intense, high-performance display experiences. 

How does it feel to work on emerging technologies and contribute to the development of the standard by which the whole industry will function?

Sitting at the table is both an honor and a tremendous responsibility. Rather than designing one car, you're contributing to the design of all future cars.

The development of display norms, like DisplayPort 2.1 and HDMI 2.1, to name but a few, was conducted at that very level, and this forced us to combine the views of experts with backgrounds and expertise that were so disparate. We shared only professionalism on our own ends and an intimate, communal sense of the industry.

We had a keen awareness of the degree of accountability on our shoulders, and that we weren't producing one particular standard—that we were actually setting the table for future innovations that had yet to be launched. It's a wonderfully exhilarating process. 

To the average individual, terms such as DisplayPort 2.1 and HDMI 2.1 are unknown. Describe what they have provided the masses and what impact this has had on our lives.

That is an excellent question, and you are correct. Those terms may not mean much to everyone, but they represent an important step forward in how we interact with technology on a daily basis.

DisplayPort 2.1 and HDMI 2.1 are many-lane superhighways compared to the old display standards' two-lane roads. They significantly amplify the data that can be transmitted, and users are able to accomplish truly remarkable things.

For the gamer crowd, this will be played at extremely high resolutions, such as 4K at a 120Hz refresh rate or higher, allowing for a smoother and more realistic gaming experience. The professional crowd, such as video editors or graphic designers, will be able to work seamlessly on beautifully detailed 8K monitors without any performance hindrance. And for the forward thinker, all this builds the foundation for the next generation of virtual reality/augmented reality headsets, where fault-free, high-speed data are necessary to provide an incredibly immersive experience without the “graphics blockers” everyone's so familiar with.

Finally, the numbers are not about tech but what tech makes possible. My work takes the technical prohibitions away so that millions to benefit from faster, sharper, and smoother visual experiences. 

Explain what is referred to as a “graphics blocker” and how you deal with it.

A graphics blocker is basically an enormous problem, preventing the product from getting out to the market. One among my principal projects at Intel is currently working on solving issues straight, be it laptop, desktop PC, monitor, even the VR devices.

A blocker may come in the form of the screen freezing, sudden display glitches, or a VR head display distorted images. As the display is the first point of contact for the user, even small issues have the potential to greatly emanate from this. My product addresses this issue by helping detect the issues early, quantify them, and make the product customer-ready without any risk.

How did you succeed with zero blockers? These kinds of issues are unavoidable with technologies of this intensity.

It was not one solution but actually an alteration of our method. Previously, emphasis had been placed, many times, on correction of the most pressing problems immediately before the launch of one product. We shifted away from strictly reactive work to proactive, strategic work.

This required our work to begin much sooner. I had to plan for potential issues by intimately knowing numerous OEM/ODM designs and upcoming platforms.

This led to an historic 'zero-blocker' product launch for our high-end Intel product. Reaching this benchmark was never solely an exercise in individual technical proficiency; instead, it was evidence of our capability to instill definitive issue elimination, shape stakeholders through cooperation, and implement an uncompromising, detail-driven strategy. We demonstrated that product launch problems, heretofore thought unavoidable, were actually eliminable.  

Apart from the work you do for the corporation, you have also recently joined the Hackathon Raptors Association. Does joining societies like that help challenge oneself and try out one's ideas in such a rapid-paced industry?

I feed off testing the limits of what is achievable in group settings off the clock. That getting involved with professional groups, like Hackathon Raptors, has been worth all the contention is undeniable.

These high-stakes, fast-paced settings allow me to test, expand my set of skills, and develop strong relations within the tech industry—and take those learnings straight out of them into professional projects.

You said you have been awarded several awards by Intel for your work; how important is this recognition to you?

To receive this kind of praise from the firm, the kind that is the result of taking the Intel Spontaneous Recognition Awards, is very meaningful because it's not an annual review kind of thing. They're targeted, in-the-moment kind of recognitions for outstanding work. Receiving that is an emphatic kind of validation that the work had an impact and was greatly appreciated by leadership and coworkers.

In an increasingly competitive data-rich environment, reputation and the recognition by one's colleagues are worth far more than a formal title. Your title may provide you with authority, but your reputation for the ability to solve increasingly complex problems provides you with influence. That kind of influence is much more valuable and enduring than any title will prove. 

How do you see the future of virtual reality technologies? What awaits us in the next 5–10 years?

The future of VR isn’t just about sharper visuals or faster frame rates. It’s about making the headset disappear as a piece of equipment and allowing the technology to feel like a natural extension of our lives.

Over the next 5 to 10 years, we will see displays transition from our desks to our environment. Augmented and virtual reality will become mainstream, and the distinction between the physical and digital worlds will become increasingly blurred. We'll have smart glasses and holographic displays for work and entertainment, and we won't even think about the cables or the data transfer speeds because the technology will be an invisible foundation. We're working on making this a reality.

Published on: Tuesday, October 14, 2025, 05:19 PM IST