Filed under: Peripherals, Apple History
A FireWire story
Once upon a time the Mac vs. PC debate found a kind of synecdoche in the FireWire vs. USB debate. FireWire had been invented by Apple way back in 1986 essentially to replace SCSI. USB 1.0 arrived on the scene in 1995 from Intel, Microsoft, and a few others. Somewhat ironically, however, it was the original iMac that gave USB a needed kick-start in adoption. In any case, for a while there was a clear sense that FireWire was the Mac peripheral interface in contrast with the Wintel USB, and even now FireWire 400 tends to outperform the higher-spec'ed USB 2.0 on Macs in the real world. Nonetheless, with Apple moving to Intel there has a been a notable shift in Cupertino away from the interface Apple invented (witness the USB-only iPods), and with the forthcoming USB 3.0 standard and the increasing prevalence of eSATA the future looked somewhat bleak for FireWire. But FireWire is not going down without a fight. The industry trade group has announced a new standard, FireWire S3200 which will use the same connectors as FireWire 800 but deliver approximately 4 times the performance. What's interesting to me is the question of whether and how far Apple will go to support the new standard. Is FireWire destined to become the bastard stepchild or will Apple once again reclaim its old standard and live happily ever after?
[via Engadget]
_thumbnail.jpg "Take a stroll down memory lane")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Walt Atwood said 4:43PM on 12-15-2007
I would expect that FireWire 3200's fate will depend on how well it works with existing hardware. If it's possible to just buy a PCI or Express34 card and install FW3200 on an existing late-model Mac that easily, and wind up with working 3200, then that will be great.
I also think this FW vs. USB thing is silly, though. One of these days, a low-power fiber optic interface is going to come along and then FireWire, USB, SATA, Ethernet and the whole nine yards will go into the tech junkheap. Then all we'll have left will be fiber optic and wireless.
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satadru said 4:50PM on 12-15-2007
FYI... USB 3.0 supports fiber optic cabling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#USB_3.0
Fiber optic cabling's a bitch... if you've ever worked with it.
Jonny said 5:06PM on 12-15-2007
I love how if apple buys something from someone else, they inadvertently 'create it'. It's friggin' hilarious.
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Simon Arch said 5:14PM on 12-15-2007
From Wikipedia:
"It was initiated by Apple and developed by the IEEE P1394 Working Group, largely driven by contributions from Apple..."
I'm not certain how that adds up to Apple "buying" FireWire.
conigs said 5:14PM on 12-15-2007
While not technically invented by Apple, Firewire was indeed initiated and heavily backed by Apple through the IEEE 1394 Working group (with funds fro other companies as well. So invented may be a bit misleading, but created sounds about right.
artifex said 5:17PM on 12-15-2007
Got any proof that contradicts the Wikipedia claim that Apple initiated it?
Jonny said 6:34PM on 12-15-2007
So if I fund research for a cure for cancer and the scientists from the company I fund find one, then I created or invented the cure for cancer. hehe.
(btw there's a cure out there... it's the govt keeping it from us maaaaaaaaan)
Michael said 5:13PM on 12-15-2007
From my limited knowledge: Firewire beats out USB due to its concurrent/bi-directional communications with the device. For this alone it is better then USB. I no nothing about USB3 so I am unsure if they change this... and if they do I would assume there might be some troubles with backwards compatibility.
The new Firewire S3200 if FULLY backwards compatible and is a seamless upgrade. It would have to be a no brainer to implement the new standard. However.. I also thought it (is) was a no brainer to implement eSata.... by Apple still has not!
All in all, I want to see the continuation of Firewire... it truly is superior in all aspects. USB is great for keyboards, mice and other input devices... but is HORRIBLE for anything else. USB 2.x has a hard limitation that prevents drives/arrays beyond 2GB. So Firewire has a great long life ahead of it so long as it can surpass eSata.
As a side note... I have not heard anything of late... but wireless FireWire was a very hot protocol.
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Simon Arch said 5:15PM on 12-15-2007
"USB 2.x has a hard limitation that prevents drives/arrays beyond 2GB."
No it doesn't. I've got a 400gb hard drive plugged into my MacBook's USB port right now, and I regularly use my 6gb iPod mini on the same port.
Michael said 5:17PM on 12-15-2007
Opps. My Bad.. that was suppose to be 2TB
Simon Arch said 6:03PM on 12-15-2007
Ah, 2tb sounds more like it. And while that doesn't seem too small TODAY, I'm sure five years from now I'll be singing a different tune.
Ryan Trevisol said 5:14PM on 12-15-2007
Interesting. FW800 hasn't exactly enjoyed even the success FW400 has, but it's definately a nice interface.
With SSD's on the rise, I would expect the best performance for an external SSD drive would come from Firewire 800. If FW800 can get a foothold with performance enthusiasts now with external SSDs, then FW3200 might have a chance. Otherwise, USB's gonna dominate.
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Fornya said 5:20PM on 12-15-2007
Synecdoche? That was unnecessary.
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Weevie833 said 5:42PM on 12-15-2007
FW 400 has had a good run, but I have had too many troubles, and heard too many hard luck stories where some static electricity has leaped from a dangling or misaligned FW 400 cable causing thousands of dollars worth of damage to broadcast production equipment. Technically, all devices involved in a FW 400 connection are supposed to be off BEFORE they are connected, but who does that when the whole format was touted as "hot swappable"? FW 800 has eliminated this problem, not to mention problem with reverse polarity insertion problems with FW400. FW400 can die AFAIAC.
steve
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zsteiner said 5:51PM on 12-15-2007
Apple may be shooting themselves in the foot on the Firewire front. My friend recently bought a MacBook to use for music recording. He discovered that his firewire interface does not work with his new computer. The root of the problem is Apple opting for less expensive Firewire chips that do not work with professional audio interfaces from a variety of major manufacturers. Unfortunate that many musicians prefer Mac for recording. This seems to be alienating a large potential Mac (and Firewire) audience.
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Michel said 7:09PM on 12-15-2007
always the doom-day story, hu ?
that's funny. nothing to fuss.
Joe said 9:52AM on 12-17-2007
Well, to be fair, if he's buying a laptop for professional audio recording, he should have checked for compatibility first. Besides, the MacBook is a consumer-level laptop, where the MBP is more for professional applications. I'm not saying that the MacBook shouldn't have a better firewire card, but professional work calls for professional workflows, which include checking for compatibility when upgrading hardware.
FWIW, I use Cubase with a Firepod and have had no issues, and my friend uses ProTools with a Digi02 on a 12" Powerbook. You just have to do your research before you invest in studio gear.
Cycomachead said 7:13PM on 12-15-2007
The funny thing is: I think FW400 is still getting stronger. Dell is now putting 4-6 plugs on their notebooks. Apple should add FW800 support to more Macs (MacBook, MacMini) and it's nice to have that on the iMacs.
But will the current 9 pin connectors work at the 3.2Gb/s or will they just accept the same cable? (Like the USB 1.1-2 connection) Or could their be a firmware update? (I think that's unlikely, but It'd be AWESOME!)
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Jeff Harrell said 7:24PM on 12-15-2007
This story has me confused as hell. Firewire 3200 is not new, not by a long shot. It's at least five years old. I wrote about a news story that referred to Firewire 3200 in January of 2003, and though that news story is no longer up on the Web, it in turn referred to Firewire 3200 technology from as far back as April of 2002. I don't think it was ever turned into a retail product, but I know the specification existed back then.
Is the collective impression around the Web that Firewire 3200 is something brand new?
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Max said 8:20PM on 12-15-2007
Well, considering the Read link is a press release from the 1394 Trade Association officially announcing the Firewire 3200 spec on December 12, 2007 (3 days ago), it seems reasonable to post about it now.
I'm sure they've been working on it for some time now, but it just got finalized as an official spec.