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Firewire is a high-speed, hot-swappable peripheral
interface that supports data transfer rates of up to
800 megabits/second. Firewire was originally developed
by Apple Computer Corporation and it was adopted as
an industry standard (IEEE 1394) in 1995.
Firewire specifications
The original implementation of Firewire operated at a speed of 400 megabits/second, but the latest version (Firewire 800 - IEEE 1394b) has doubled the data transer rate to a whopping 800 megabits/second. Firewire 800 also doubled the maximum length of a Firewire cable to 15 feet.
Firewire devices
The amazing speed of the Firewire bus and the ability to connect and disconnect Firewire devices while the computer is running has made Firewire the connection of choice for manufacturers of digital camcorders. Firewire is also supported in a number of hard drives and CD/DVD burners.
Advantages of Firewire over USB
- Firewire is twice as fast as USB 2.0.
- The Firewire bus can directly power devices up to 45 watts which means that many more
Firewire devices can operate without a
dedicated power supply than with USB.
- When used with a Firewire 800 optical repeater, you can use Firewire devices up to 3300' away.
Disadvantages of Firewire
- Not all PCs come factory equipped with
Firewire ports.
- Firewire devices are typically more expensive than USB devices.
Adding Firewire ports to your computer
You can add Firewire capability to virtually any PC that has an open PCI slot simply by purchasing and installing a Firewire adapter, and PCMCIA Firewire adapters are readily available for notebook computers.
Conclusion
There are more Firewire devices being put on the market every day, and the prices of existing Firewire devices continues to drop. If peak performance is your goal, you owe it to yourself to switch over to Firewire.
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