A high-speed serial bus developed by Apple and Texas Instruments that allows for the connection of up to 63 devices. It is widely used for downloading video from digital camcorders to the computer. Also known as the IEEE 1394 standard, the i.Link connector and the High Performance Serial Bus (HPSB), the first version of FireWire supported 100, 200 and 400 Mbits/sec transfer rates and a distance of 4.5 meters between devices.
IEEE 1394b provides 800, 1,600 and 3,200 Mbps speeds, increases cable distance to 100 meters and can use glass or plastic fiber and Cat 5 Ethernet cable. FireWire 800 was the first implementation of 1394b and became available in 2003. Backward compatible with FireWire 400, earlier devices run at the lower speed.
FireWire supports hot swapping, multiple speeds on the same bus and isochronous data transfer, which guarantees bandwidth for multimedia operations.
FireWire Connectors
The 6-pin socket is commonly found on desktop computers. A 4-pin version is used on laptops. The faster FireWire 800 requires a 9-pin connector.
IEEE 1394b provides 800, 1,600 and 3,200 Mbps speeds, increases cable distance to 100 meters and can use glass or plastic fiber and Cat 5 Ethernet cable. FireWire 800 was the first implementation of 1394b and became available in 2003. Backward compatible with FireWire 400, earlier devices run at the lower speed.
FireWire supports hot swapping, multiple speeds on the same bus and isochronous data transfer, which guarantees bandwidth for multimedia operations.
FireWire Connectors
The 6-pin socket is commonly found on desktop computers. A 4-pin version is used on laptops. The faster FireWire 800 requires a 9-pin connector.
 | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2008 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
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