FireWire/1394 (what exactly is it??) - Tech Support Forums

Sweeper · September 22nd, 2002, 10:33 AM

what exactly do these cards do? One of my PC's has a 1394 Firewire card (PCI). Excuse my ignorance on this subject. It has 2 connections on the back and one that runs to the front of the PC. ???

What are the uses of this card?

JayMan · September 22nd, 2002, 10:38 AM

Firewire is basically like USB, but is much faster (400mbit? i think, i'm not sure on the exact speed). Its hot swappable like USB. Usually it would be used to hook up a DVcam or external harddisk/cd-rw/dvd etc....

JayMan

JayMan · September 22nd, 2002, 10:39 AM

Ha, i was right 400mbps transfer speed. More info here: http://searchnetworking.techtarget.c...212126,00.html

JayMan

poopeyhed2 · September 22nd, 2002, 10:40 AM

Firewire is a high speed port like USB 2.0 and I believe it is 400 megs/sec which is really fast... You could hook up things like DV cams, or even pc's for a network! (according to Creative Labs in their ads about their Firewire in their Audigy sound cards..)

JayMan · September 22nd, 2002, 10:40 AM

Oh, Firewire, IEEE1394 and Sony i.link are one and the same (also i think creative have their own "version" too).

JayMan

JayMan · September 22nd, 2002, 10:43 AM

Bah, i dont' see firewire as a real good thing for networking for a few reasons

1. by the standard the longest cable without using a repeater is somehing like 9feet (3 metres)
2. firewire cables tend to cost an arm and a leg, even for short lengths (well it costs an arm & a leg here in australia anyways)

JayMan

I am the Omega · September 22nd, 2002, 12:20 PM

FireWire was invented by Apple. Yes, it runs at up to 50MB/s (400Mbps), and it is (on the PC-side) IEEE-1394. Apple has been working of "firewire2" for about three years now, and it will be 800Mbps, maybe 1Gbps. As for "networking" with it.... what the hell are you talking about? This is a high-speed port used for highspeed access to (external) HD's and fast CD-RW's, DV camera's, and, oh yeah, iPod's

Now if you mean networking as a "cluster" these things are damn good. Though apple's do come with Gigabit ethernet anyway... so it'd be stupid. In general, although 80Mbps slower than USB 2.0, they generally run much faster in actual use. Apple invented them at a time when comprable products (of which there was really only USB 1.1) were running at 1/36th the speed. Yes, SCSI beats it out, but they're problematic, cumbersome, and damn are they EXPENSIVE! As for cost of firewire+cables, they're cheap in the US (:P)

poopeyhed2 · September 22nd, 2002, 01:11 PM

I don't have Firewire, so I cna't tell you my personal experiences aobut it. Networking it, not a clue about it, but according to the ads that I see aobut Creative Labs Audigy cards, it says you can network it, so I'm taking their word for it..

Praetorian · September 22nd, 2002, 01:33 PM

Yes, you can network machines with firewire. I believe Otheos has done this with this Linux boxes. Ask him for more info.

DanU · September 22nd, 2002, 09:19 PM

Firewire is GREAT for copying video clips from your DV camcorder to your computer or even to another DV camcorder. Say goodbye to clumsy, lower quality analog video copying methods. One cable carries both high quality digital video and stereo sound.

A lot of external hard drives and CD burners are using firewire, too.