Firewire or USB Booting on MacTel's?

[appleweek]

Subj: Firewire or USB Booting on MacTel's?

Hey,
I would like to know which technology, Firewire or USB 2.0, might support booting on the new production MacTels as well as which supports booting on these current DevKits? I am trying to decide if I should sell the USB 2.0-only enclosure I got as a gift and purchase a Firewire or dual FW&USB2.0 enclosure. I would like the enclosure to support booting from a HD or Optical media.

For example, current PPC Mac's fully support booting from external Firewire HD and optical media. Newer Mac's also support USB booting, however a technical limitation of Mac OS X doesn't allow it to work (I've gotten OS 9 to install onto and work successfully booted off an external USB 1.1 HDD before).

USB 2.0 is the de facto connector on PC's and choice of most external harddrives. Accordingly the majority of PC motherboards now have BIOS that supports USB booting (Does Windows support USB booting BTW??). However, the question then is, what will the the production MacTels use: std PC BIOS? Intel EFI? or some custom OpenFireware 'port'? If it is standard PC BIOS (as DevKits and other PC's), then USB booting would be supported at a BIOS level (and OS X should be made to work accordingly). If its OpenFirmware ported to Intel, then Firewire booting would work (and already supported by OS X). Any idea what EFI might support (FW or USB or both)?

Thanks for any input.

 

[Mr. G4]

The MacTel that were shown in WWDC didn't have firewire ports. However, I'm sure there will be on those that come out later...how would those Final Cut Pro people get their video in.

Subj: Firewire or USB Booting on MacTel's?

Hey,
I would like to know which technology, Firewire or USB 2.0, might support booting on the new production MacTels as well as which supports booting on these current DevKits? I am trying to decide if I should sell the USB 2.0-only enclosure I got as a gift and purchase a Firewire or dual FW&USB2.0 enclosure. I would like the enclosure to support booting from a HD or Optical media.

For example, current PPC Mac's fully support booting from external Firewire HD and optical media. Newer Mac's also support USB booting, however a technical limitation of Mac OS X doesn't allow it to work (I've gotten OS 9 to install onto and work successfully booted off an external USB 1.1 HDD before).

USB 2.0 is the de facto connector on PC's and choice of most external harddrives. Accordingly the majority of PC motherboards now have BIOS that supports USB booting (Does Windows support USB booting BTW??). However, the question then is, what will the the production MacTels use: std PC BIOS? Intel EFI? or some custom OpenFireware 'port'? If it is standard PC BIOS (as DevKits and other PC's), then USB booting would be supported at a BIOS level (and OS X should be made to work accordingly). If its OpenFirmware ported to Intel, then Firewire booting would work (and already supported by OS X). Any idea what EFI might support (FW or USB or both)?

Thanks for any input.