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Firewire 2 (1394b)
- Thread starter arn
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1394.b or Firewire 2 Chips Not Ready
The reason Apple and no other company has released 1394.b products is that the silicon is not ready. Texas Instruments is ahead of all other chip makers but their chips are still not ready for commercial release. I would not expect to see any products until 1st or more likely 2nd quarter next year. As soon as the chips are done Apple will be ready to add them to their line up.
The reason Apple and no other company has released 1394.b products is that the silicon is not ready. Texas Instruments is ahead of all other chip makers but their chips are still not ready for commercial release. I would not expect to see any products until 1st or more likely 2nd quarter next year. As soon as the chips are done Apple will be ready to add them to their line up.
Originally posted by zed
hey np arn
so how fast is firewire 2 supposed to be exactly?
100Mb/s 200Mb/s 400Mb/s 800Mb/s 1600Mb/s and 3200Mb/s
Those are all of the official speeds that 1394b will do. Cable type and distance are what will dictate the speed you hit.
Example
Cat5e at 100 meters will do 100Mb/s
Plastic Fiber at 100 meters will do evey speed except for 3200Mb/s
Glass Fiber at 100 meters will do everything.
Standard cable we use now at 4.5 meters will do 100Mb/s 200Mb/s 400Mb/s and 800Mb/s
New cable with new connector at 4.5 meters will do 400Mb/s 800Mb/s 1600Mb/s and 3200Mb/s
I've read that the 1st rev of 1392b will not support 3200Mb/s at first but that was a written a while ago (2000 I think).
Edit....
Here is a quote from a paper (Current - June 2002) that better explains some of the speed details. From the reading it would seem 800Mb/s will be here 'NOW' and 1600Mb/s and 3200Mb/s are in the later rev's.
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1394b technology builds on the strengths of 1394a and adds critical new capabilities, notably; added bandwidth to 800 Megabits/second all the way, eventually, to 3.2 Gigabits/second. It incorporates networking capabilities over distances of 100 meters over CAT-5 and plastic optical fiber. It also improves overall network efficiency. These new features have been created with 1394a compatibility in mind, while maintaining the vital architectural characteristics of plug and play (PnP), peer-to-peer connectivity, and isochronous channels. This will keep 1394 in line with bandwidth demands currently required by CE, PC and peripheral applications, and ahead of competing standards.
For a 1394 network in the home, 1394 had to enable transmission past the 4.5-meter length originally set by 1394a. This is accomplished by 1394b, which also serves a variety of home network demands and potential requirements through a set of specifications for a multitude of cables. These include unshielded twisted pair CAT-5 cable; plastic optical fiber (POF); hard polymer clad fiber (HPCF) also known as glass optical fiber (GOF); and shielded twisted pair (STP). Each cable/ interconnect type is specified for specific lengths and associated data rates.
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Also here is another interesting quote from that paper that details some of the bandwidth needs of different video related items.
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The 1394 bus in its 1394-1995 and 1394a versions provides speeds of 400 Megabits/second over distances of 4.5 meters. These performance capabilities that have led to 1394s design into almost all high end camcorders and digital cameras, along with a long list of hard disk drives, printers, scanners, and other peripherals. Almost all new notebook PCs and many desktop versions also are now 1394-enabled. Some typical bandwidths for application are as follows: MPEG-2 for DTV requires, on average, 8 Mbps; typical IP transfer rates range between one and five Mbps; digital video in camcorders uses 25 Mbps; and high definition DTV requires approximately 20 Mbps. As a result, IEEE 1394a offers a high bandwidth network that can support many applications concurrently. North American analysts estimate that by the end of 2001, more than 60 million products worldwide were equipped with 1394. Projections now are for that number to reach 100 million including PCs, DTVs, printers, drives and other products by 2003.
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Dave
Firstly, thank you Dave for the sensational post. I understand alot of might have been cut and paste, but it was timely and answer specific.
It seems "Gigawire-tm" might be Firewire 3 or 1600Mb/s Firewire.
Firewire is 400, Firewire 2 is 800 (and does not have a comercial release name yet), so Firewire 3 at 1600 seems logical to be rumoured Gigawire-tm
If Firewire is going to be my in-home HDTV network one wonders how a typical family is going to retrofit old, bogus unwired homes for this without alot of plaster and drywall removal.
Rocketman
Xserve RAID once more...
Just a thought:
If Apple is not going to come up with 2 GBit FW (aka GigaWire), how do you think are they going to connect their RAID device to the XServe?
Just a thought:
If Apple is not going to come up with 2 GBit FW (aka GigaWire), how do you think are they going to connect their RAID device to the XServe?
