Firewire chipset brand ID's?

**Tomteriffic** · November 4th, 2007, 09:12 PM

Being the eternal glutton for punishment that I am, I just got finished putting together yet another audio workstation machine. The current hot way to get multichannel audio in and out is via Firewire and most of the good audio I/O's use firewire these days. I made sure and got a mobo with firewire on it and all that good stuff. Short version of the story, A couple of grand, innumerable hours waiting for tech support, etc. etc., later, I come to find out that nothing is working by way of audio interfaces because my firewire port is powered by the wrong steenking chipset (a VIA, no surprise there. What's surprising is that it's on an otherwise all-Intel board).

I can disable that onboard firewire easily enough, but if I'm going to go get myself a card, I'd like to know that it has the preferable TI chipset on it. Is there any resource or product list, or just any way I could tell what chipset a given card is using? I'm down to little enough hair as it is, I don't need to lose any more.

**Keymaker** · November 4th, 2007, 09:58 PM

Could be IRQ problems, but your probably right. I had trouble with PCMCIA cards and their cheap chipsets.

These are a start anyway..

http://www.papyrus.co.il/Products/13...ucts.htm#PCI-e

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ire+TI&x=0&y=0

http://www.google.com/products?q=TI+...ow=dd&safe=off <=== Should be your best. I checked some of the links and they all seem to only show TI chipsets.

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22TI...et%22&safe=off

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...hipset&spell=1

May be interested in this: http://ptnewbie.com/?cat=7

**DanU** · November 6th, 2007, 03:30 AM

Uber-cheap PCI firewire card for only $3.95. Looks to be the TI chipset, but give them a call to verify:

http://www.weirdstuff.com/cgi-bin/item/14075

**Keymaker** · November 6th, 2007, 01:37 PM

Yep, looks to be a TI.

**Tomteriffic** · November 6th, 2007, 02:25 PM

Thx guys. Actually it was an audio interface manufacturer who told me what the problem was. Evidently a number of interfaces burp on the VIA chipset firewire.

Thanks again.

**phreich** · November 6th, 2007, 09:32 PM

Hi,
Thanks for the post regarding the inexpensive firewire card. I called wierdstuff and they looked at the card and confirmed it is the TI chipset.

At $3.95 each, they are a bargain.

After fighting with a via chipset firewire card for days, I am looking forward to getting a stable adapter card in my system.

Thanks again!

**DanU** · November 7th, 2007, 02:36 PM

phreich - welcome to Techimo! Thanks for confirming. I'll have to drive over there this weekend and pick up a few for some of my boxes. $3.95 is indeed a steal for a TI chip firewire / 1394 PCI card.