Short for
Display Power Management Signaling, a
VESA interface standard that defines four power management modes for
monitors in idle state:
on, stand-by, suspend and
off. Using DPMS, the display controller (typically the video card or chip from which the monitor receives signals) sends a signal along two signal lines – horizontal sync (h-sync) and vertical sync (v-sync) -- to the monitor, instructing it to enter into one of the four power management states.
