Cable length is limited to 4.5 meters but up to 16 cables can be daisy-chained yielding a total length of 72 meters under the specification.įireWire 800 (Apple's name for the 9-pin 'S800 bilingual' version of the IEEE1394b standard) was introduced commercially by Apple in 2003, allows an increase to 786.432 Mbit/s with backwards compatibility to the slower rates and 6-pin connectors of FireWire 400. (Note that the Sony-inspired iLink usually deletes the power part of the cable/connector system and only uses a 4-pin connector.)įireWire 400 can transfer data between devices at 100, 200, or 400 Mbit/s data rates (actually 98.304, 196.608, or 393.216 Mbit/s, but commonly referred to as S100, S200, and S400). Its six-wire cable is not only more convenient than SCSI cables but can supply up to 45 watts of power per port, allowing moderate-consumption devices to operate without a separate power cord. It is designed to support plug-and-play and hot swapping. Firewire also supports multiple hosts per bus, and through software IP networks can be formed between Firewire-linked computers. It allows peer-to-peer device communication, such as communication between a scanner and a printer, to take place without using system memory or the CPU. It can connect together up to 63 peripherals in an acyclic network structure (as opposed to SCSI's linear structure). and other patent holders have initially demanded from users of FireWire ($0.25 per end-user system) and the more expensive hardware needed to implement it ($1-$2) has prevented FireWire from displacing USB in low-end mass-market computer peripherals where cost of product is a major constraint. However, the small royalty that Apple Inc. It also has native support for isochronous data transport (data that must be delivered with deterministic latency, such as audio or video). It is used instead of the more common Universal Serial Bus (USB) due to its faster speed, higher power distribution capabilities, and because it does not need a computer host. The system is commonly used for connection of data storage devices and digital video cameras, but is also popular in industrial systems for machine vision and professional audio systems. Sony's implementation of the system is known as i.Link, and uses only the four signal pins, discarding the two pins that provide power to the device in favor of a separate power connector on Sony's i.Link products.

It is defined in IEEE standard 1394 which is currently a composite of three documents: the original IEEE Std 1394-1995, the IEEE Std 1394a-2000 amendment, and the IEEE Std 1394b-2002 amendment. FireWire (also known as i.Link, IEEE designation 1394) is a personal computer and digital video serial bus interface standard offering high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data services, developed primarily by Apple Computer, completing development in 1995.

Mac to mac firewire ccable