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decdonald
Mar 16, 2009, 03:13 AM
What is FireWire for? I don't understand although I had checked out http://developer.apple.com/hardwaredrivers/firewire/index.html


spinnerlys
Mar 16, 2009, 04:24 AM
FireWire (also known as IEEE 1394 or iLink) is for connecting external devices like hard disk or audio/video interfaces or video cameras to a computer.

It has its own controller on the motherboard/logicboard, contrary to USB (which uses the CPU), and can sustain data rates from 35 MB/s (FW 400) to almost 70 MB/s (FW 800) constantly.

Every Mac since the end of the 90ies had one of those, except now the MacBook (Unibody).

For further reading: Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FireWire), Google (http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=firewire&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8)
decdonald
Mar 16, 2009, 05:00 AM
In the future, will MacBook (Unibody) also have FireWire?
old-wiz
Mar 16, 2009, 07:20 AM
apple dropped firewire from the base unibody macbook. I doubt they will put it back. the white macbook still has firewire.
decdonald
Mar 16, 2009, 07:35 AM
What can we use to replace FireWire? USB 2.0?
r.j.s
Mar 16, 2009, 07:37 AM
What can we use to replace FireWire? USB 2.0?

USB 2 doesn't exactly replace FW, but it is the substitute.