Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

acearchie

macrumors 68040
Jan 15, 2006
3,264
104
Ok so apple firewire is the new HDMI

Well Ill go and re-buy my whole system! Ha

Something seems a little fishy to me, no need to buy new hardware or cables

So why didn't they implement this when they first released Firewire...
 

SciTeach

macrumors regular
Apr 18, 2006
103
0
NEK
Well, if anything comes from this, at least backing up will be faster...

Strange about how the speed increases but everything (well almost everything) is the same...:confused:
 

xUKHCx

Administrator emeritus
Jan 15, 2006
12,583
9
The Kop
Glad to see FW keeping pace with USB to some extent.

Doesn't look like FW3200 will match USB3's 4.8Gbps, but then, I've always found USB's speeds to be great in theory but lackluster in practice. For large transfers (100GB+), I've found USB2's speeds to be pretty underwhelming in comparison to "old" FW400.

I'm also still plodding along just fine with FW400 (no Intel Mac yet), so any positive FW news is just a novelty for me. By the time FW3200 appears, I'll probably only just have bought my first FW800-capable machine.

USB 3 needs new cables as it adds an optical line.
 

iJawn108

macrumors 65816
Apr 15, 2006
1,198
0
geeze... firewire 3500... usb 3... 80 cores by 2010 from intel...


so much new fun stuff is coming
 

SPUY767

macrumors 68020
Jun 22, 2003
2,041
131
GA
yeah it does a little, except a whole lot faster :p

yeah, I've always found USB's theoritical limits to be exactly that, purely theoretical. I've been about to get over 80MB/sec out of a firewire 800 drive whose theoretical maximum would be 100MB/sec. USB 2.0 whose limit is allegedly 50MB/sec I can barely squeeze 20 MB/sec out of.

FW800/3200 ipod connection would be nice

Would be a little superfluous, the bottleneck is typically on the iPod side with its drive controller from what I can tell.
 

thecritix

macrumors 6502
Dec 11, 2006
284
0
West London, England
But what about all the Windows users with nary a Firewire port? For that reason I doubt Apple will ever use Firewire with an iPod again.

Why not continue to sell ipod with USB but also sell the firewire cable seperately, that way apple can make money on an overpriced Firewire cable, we can have our quick transfer speeds and... be able to gloat over PC at how far superior our macs are.

everyones a winner
 

jodycordan

macrumors newbie
Sep 12, 2007
2
0
Pointless if your hard drive is the bottleneck

The very most you can get out of a hard drive (if your lucky) is 80 megabytes a second. I'll start getting excited when a hard drive can keep up with the interface it runs on.
 

macFanDave

macrumors 6502a
Apr 14, 2003
571
0
Same connector as what?

FireWire 400 or 800?

I think that the biggest problem with the adoption of FW800 was the fact that it had a different connector than 400. This was stupid because many years ago, I saw the road map of FireWire going from 400 to 800 to 1600 and to 3200. They should have standardized on the connector that could handle 3200 and then used that on all of the previous generations, even if it meant leaving some pins blank.

FW400 is vastly better that USB 2.0 even with its putative 480 mbps speed.

I hope FW 3200 can do well. As far as saying that the "data transfer standard war " is over and that USB won, keep in mind that you are dealing with a company that never throws in the towel. In any company can take an early technical leader that was overtaken by a popular inferior technology and make it relevant again, it is Apple. Let's get 'er done this time, guys!
 

abrooks

macrumors 6502a
Sep 18, 2004
640
191
London, UK
Why not continue to sell ipod with USB but also sell the firewire cable seperately, that way apple can make money on an overpriced Firewire cable, we can have our quick transfer speeds and... be able to gloat over PC at how far superior our macs are.

everyones a winner

There isn't enough space in current generation iPods for a Firewire controller, it would also increase the price of the units. Just look at the thickness and cost of the third-generation iPod.

Firewire is dead in the water for iPods.
 

notjustjay

macrumors 603
Sep 19, 2003
6,056
167
Canada, eh?
Something seems a little fishy to me, no need to buy new hardware or cables

So why didn't they implement this when they first released Firewire...

It sounded to me like you need to buy new hardware, e.g. the controllers in your logic board and whatever devices take advantage of the new speed. The cables stay the same because the cable isn't the weakest link in the chain, much like a USB cable could be either 1.1 or 2.0 depending on the speed of the controller. Or how a CAT5 cable initially supported 10 mbps, then 100 mbps, now Gigabit ethernet. Nothing suspicious about finding faster ways to make things happen on the same cable.
 

macinfojunkie

macrumors 6502
Jun 4, 2005
336
166
Why not continue to sell ipod with USB but also sell the firewire cable seperately, that way apple can make money on an overpriced Firewire cable, we can have our quick transfer speeds and... be able to gloat over PC at how far superior our macs are.

everyones a winner


I want an iPod with SCSI on it. That would be great!
 

MrCrowbar

macrumors 68020
Jan 12, 2006
2,232
519
Would it be any faster though? I thought the bottle neck was getting the data on to the disk as it's only 4200rpm.

Indeed. USB2 is plenty fast for one 7200 rpm drive. Those 1.8" drives are pretty bad performance wise. But it's good enough for audio and stamp sized video. Plus you got those seek times, basically for every track that has to be synced.

Firewire would make some sense for the flash based iPods. Although having a consumer device (iPod) connect faster to a Professional device (Mac Pro and Macbook Pro, both of which have FW800) isn't really profitable.

It's far more probable Apple upgrade the iPods and Macs to USB 3.0. It's backwards compatible down to USB 1.1 and Windows PCs are more likely to have it. Also, Firewire is for realtime data. You don't need realtime iPod syncing, do you? ;)

That new Firewire would indeed be great for Professionals doing Audio and Video. It might not be quick enough to get RAW video from the RED camera to a RAID, besides, you can buy a special RAID just for that camera. High Definition can be a bitch indeed. We only have it occasionally in Germany, and it's all 1080i, i.e. unwatchable (interlaced) on any affordable LCD TV. Why there is an interlaced high definition digital broadcasting standard is beyond me, all the production is done in progressive, LCDs only works in Progressive mode... Where can I get 720p on demand movies and series in Germany?
 

bigandy

macrumors G3
Apr 30, 2004
8,852
7
Murka
yeah, I've always found USB's theoritical limits to be exactly that, purely theoretical. I've been about to get over 80MB/sec out of a firewire 800 drive whose theoretical maximum would be 100MB/sec. USB 2.0 whose limit is allegedly 50MB/sec I can barely squeeze 20 MB/sec out of.

1. USB2 runs quicker on Windows. Quite a bit quicker. Still no contest with FW though.

2. FireWire, uses a "Peer-to-Peer" architecture in which the peripherals are intelligent and can negotiate bus conflicts to determine which device can best control a data transfer.

3. Hi-Speed USB 2.0 uses a "Master-Slave" architecture in which the computer handles all arbitration functions and dictates data flow to, from and between the attached peripherals (adding additional system overhead and resulting in slower data flow control).



I'm glad Firewire is being updated again - I was wondering how long it'd be before we saw the next step. It's great that 1600 is being missed and we're jumping straight to 3200. :)



Will this be a firmware update since it used the same ports and connectors that we currently have.

doubtful, because there'll be some architecture upgrades to make use of the quadrupling of the speed.
 

daddywags214

macrumors regular
Sep 26, 2006
120
0
Vancouver, BC
1. USB2 runs quicker on Windows. Quite a bit quicker. Still no contest with FW though.

2. FireWire, uses a "Peer-to-Peer" architecture in which the peripherals are intelligent and can negotiate bus conflicts to determine which device can best control a data transfer.

3. Hi-Speed USB 2.0 uses a "Master-Slave" architecture in which the computer handles all arbitration functions and dictates data flow to, from and between the attached peripherals (adding additional system overhead and resulting in slower data flow control).



I'm glad Firewire is being updated again - I was wondering how long it'd be before we saw the next step. It's great that 1600 is being missed and we're jumping straight to 3200. :)





doubtful, because there'll be some architecture upgrades to make use of the quadrupling of the speed.


I know about FW's peer-to-peer architecture, but I didn't know that USB2 was faster on Windows. Do you know why it is? I haven't fired up my PC in awhile; now I'm interested in a little side-by-side test.
 

QuantumLo0p

macrumors 6502a
Apr 28, 2006
992
30
U.S.A.
I wonder if the new FW spec will have the same advantages over USB3 that FW400/800 has over USB2? USB2 does not have much bus power and real world sustained throughput is slower than FW in most cases.

I have to admit it would be nice to have FW in smaller devices, including the iPod, but the extra hardware and cost is a factor.:eek:
 

bigandy

macrumors G3
Apr 30, 2004
8,852
7
Murka
I know about FW's peer-to-peer architecture, but I didn't know that USB2 was faster on Windows. Do you know why it is? I haven't fired up my PC in awhile; now I'm interested in a little side-by-side test.

I think it's because of the drivers, they're just better on Windies.


I wonder if the new FW spec will have the same advantages over USB3 that FW400/800 has over USB2? USB2 does not have much bus power and real world sustained throughput is slower than FW in most cases.

I have to admit it would be nice to have FW in smaller devices, including the iPod, but the extra hardware and cost is a factor.:eek:


It likely will. USB3 will be backward compatible, so will keep the same architecture. I expect FW3200 to outperform USB3 without problem.
 

macinfojunkie

macrumors 6502
Jun 4, 2005
336
166
1. USB2 runs quicker on Windows. Quite a bit quicker. Still no contest with FW though.

Why is that the case. And I don't mean why as in "isn't everything supposed to be better on a mac".... But, if USB 2.0 is a standard architecture, surely only OS driver is different? Is Apple's USB software really that bad? I can't say that I've noticed much difference when I use USB 2.0 dirves to transfer files between a PC and a Mac, then again I'm probably hitting the limit of the physical disc and not reaching that o the interface so might not have noticed.can you elaboarate on te resns you think t would be slwoer on a Mac - assuming the Minitruth lets you post such heresy :D
 

bigandy

macrumors G3
Apr 30, 2004
8,852
7
Murka
Why is that the case. And I don't mean why as in "isn't everything supposed to be better on a mac".... But, if USB 2.0 is a standard architecture, surely only OS driver is different? Is Apple's USB software really that bad? I can't say that I've noticed much difference when I use USB 2.0 dirves to transfer files between a PC and a Mac, then again I'm probably hitting the limit of the physical disc and not reaching that o the interface so might not have noticed.can you elaboarate on te resns you think t would be slwoer on a Mac - assuming the Minitruth lets you post such heresy :D

I'll try and root out the article. I have a feeling it was arstechnica that said it first.
 

MovieCutter

macrumors 68040
May 3, 2005
3,342
2
Washington, DC
As has already been stated, like any of this matters. The disks that we jack into these FW3200 enclosures are crap anyway, so you won't get any faster transfer rates unless you have flash drives or a killer RAID setup. Move along.
 

jbh001

macrumors member
May 14, 2003
82
1
So what ever happened to 1394c also known as S800T?

I thought that S3200 was already part of 1394b.
Does this revision update the spec from 1394b-2002 to 1394b-2008?

Then again, since Apple has made nice with Intel, maybe Intel has forgiven Apple over it's Firewire snootiness, and S3200 will be integrated into Intel's chipsets. Dare I dream that S3200 support will be built-in to the Santa Rosa refresh Intel has announced for January?
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.