Firewire Specification Approved For Speeds Up To 3.2 Gigabits/sec

[CrackedButter]

The article mentions that FW800 isn't as widespread as FW400. It would help its chances if Apple added it to all its machines rather than force us to buy the more expensive machine to get that feature.

Before anybody chimes in with 'you get what you pay for' or FW800 is a professional feature, don't bother. If you want adoption of a standard you would think to put it on as many machines as possible so that 3rd parties can develop accessories with a bigger market in mind. Apple is strangling its' own neck.

 

[Thomas2006]

In my opinion I hope Apple doesn't adopt this.

USB 3 is about to be released with speeds up to 3gbps and it's backward compatible using the same connector.

Trying to find Firewire 800 products are a major pain in the ass.

USB 3 will help out the MacBook Air the most since it only has the one port, but I am wondering if the MacBook will lose FireWire or if Apple will continue to use it.

 

[Vaphoron]

I really hope this is adopted better than FW800. It would be the perfect interface for high end audio and video equipment to interface with a computer and transfer a lot of data.

 

[LtRammstein]

Is it me, or does this mean the SATA Port Multiplier concept will be dropped?

Besides, if you compare RAID to the PM capabilities (in the link), I think PM would be better over RAID.

 

[AlphaAnt]

Before anybody chimes in with 'you get what you pay for' or FW800 is a professional feature, don't bother. If you want adoption of a standard you would think to put it on as many machines as possible so that 3rd parties can develop accessories with a bigger market in mind. Apple is strangling its' own neck.

Case in point: Playstation 3 all including Blu-Ray. If it weren't for that, the HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray battle would have gone very differently.

 

[MattG]

Yes please!!!

 

[LtRammstein]

Yes please!!!

I lol'd.

 

[zenspeaks]

In my opinion I hope Apple doesn't adopt this.

USB 3 is about to be released with speeds up to 3gbps and it's backward compatible using the same connector.

Trying to find Firewire 800 products are a major pain in the ass.

Hmm...this actually make sense. Rather an extra USB port than a Firewire with not too many products.

 

[Shagrat]

I'm sorry I just don't get the "I WANT BLU RAY" chant. There are not many movies in this format yet, the pricing is still too high and a 13 screen is not the best viewing real estate. I could see the 17 or 30" on a desktop but honestly on a 13" laptop? Let's not forget the power drain.
Sorry I'm dealing a cold from the 7th level of hell.

And when i want to burn an HD project out of FCP onto a Blu-Ray disk to give to clients/friends/others...??

 

[RoDe]

OH MY GOD, this is fantastic I really hope that Apple will implement this on their new machines. Just thinking about it makes me smile .

Come on guys lets pray to gather that uncle Apple puts this on the new MBP's

 

[Marx55]

Apple took ages to put FireWire 400 on the Mac.
Apple took ages to put FireWire 800 on the Mac.

Hopefully, this time we will have FireWire 3200 sooner. And do not forget the Mac mini, please. And also, please bring FireWire to the iPod and iPhone, besides all Macs, incuding the MacBook Air.

The theoretical specs are misleading here. FireWire 400 is much fastar than USB 2 even though the specs show the contrary. The reason has been previously explained and boils down to FireWire being a MUCH, MUCH, MUCH better technology than USB.

So, expect FireWire 3200 to be also much better than USB 3.

Now, if only Apple did things right...

 

[dasikes]

IEEE has approved a new version of IEEE 1394, better known to Apple users as Firewire. The standard, known as 1394-2008, encompasses all prior Firewire technology and provides complete specifications for speeds of 1.6 Gigabits/second and 3.2 Gigabits/second, which TG Daily notes utilizes the existing 9 pin cables of Firewire 800.

It seems to me this implies a driver update, not a hardware update.

 

[slimpunk]

Why are people begging for this to come to the MacMini? Unless the next model has vast improvements to the processor and graphics card, what would you be doing that would require that kind of throughput?

 

[Coprolite]

Apple took ages to put FireWire 400 on the Mac.
Apple took ages to put FireWire 800 on the Mac.

Hopefully, this time we will have FireWire 3200 sooner. And do not forget the Mac mini, please. And also, please bring FireWire to the iPod and iPhone, besides all Macs, incuding the MacBook Air.

As the plug is compatible with FW800, this would be easy to drop into the existing MBP. To do it on the MB, they'd have to make choices about eliminating a port or squeezing one more in. Of course, there are rumors of a MB redesign that would give them a chance to remap ports and make the materials more eco-friendly.

 

[-hh]

I really hope this is adopted better than FW800. It would be the perfect interface for high end audio and video equipment to interface with a computer and transfer a lot of data.

"With S3200, FireWire becomes fast enough to move even uncompressed HD signals over long distances at much lower cost than solutions such as HDMI."
- citation

Apple took ages to put FireWire 400 on the Mac.
Apple took ages to put FireWire 800 on the Mac.

Hopefully, this time we will have FireWire 3200 sooner...

Agreed.

The theoretical specs are misleading here. FireWire 400 is much fastar than USB 2 even though the specs show the contrary. The reason has been previously explained and boils down to FireWire being a MUCH, MUCH, MUCH better technology than USB.

So, expect FireWire 3200 to be also much better than USB 3....

The general advantage that FW has over USB is in lower consumption of bandwidth from overhead. As a result, FW400 has roughly 30-40% higher throughput than USB2. FW800 is roughly 3x the throughput of USB2 (cite). In general, this would suggest that FW3200 should be roughly 12x faster than USB2, and since USB3 is reportedly 10x faster than USB2, this suggests that FW3200 will indeed pull ahead of USB3 (IMO by 20%) ... although there will probably still be the incorrect perceptions because the FW naming convention speaks more towards sustained throughput while USB's refers to peak.

It seems to me this implies a driver update, not a hardware update.

It requires a new controller. There was this article (May 28, 2008) that talks about about the foundry Svmwave, which is shipping the FirePHY-800 and SW3080 in prodution quantities, and had a pin-compatible that supports SW1600 (Firewire1600) and SW3160 that was in "customer sample" quantities


-hh

 

[OriginalMacRat]

Trying to find Firewire 800 products are a major pain in the ass.

Very easy to find.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/usb/eliteclassic

http://www.firewiredirect.com/

http://www.fwdepot.com/thestore/default.php

 

[valvehead]

Just for the record, the key difference between USB and Firewire is that USB sends data at irregular rates while Firewire maintains a more consistent data rate. This is one of the reasons it is used for music production; inconsistent rates equal greater latency at some points and less at others, which doesn't translate well into metered music.

Also, firewire requires less CPU utilization.

There's a reason why most pro and semi-pro external sound interfaces use firewire. USB does not handle streaming audio well. I have seen many threads on various forums about dropouts and latency problems related to USB interfaces.

 

[Tilpots]

Why are people begging for this to come to the MacMini? Unless the next model has vast improvements to the processor and graphics card, what would you be doing that would require that kind of throughput?

HTPC

 

[Tastannin]

To those complaining, saying eSATA is better. I'll take FW3200 over eSATA any day - why? Two words: Bus power. If you have an eSATA drive, you gotta find a way to feed that device some power. All FW devices are bus powered. Perfect for mobile rigs.

To those complaining about FW800 not being put in all Macs. Do you mean the iMac doesn't count? The Aluminum iMacs all come with FW800 standard. MBP's come with FW800 standard. If you look at it, more than half the different types of Macs Apple makes now - come with FW800. (MacPro, MBP, iMac, and Xserve) Makes plenty of sense to me now. And I'd not be surprised with this new standard, all Macs will have FW800 at a minimum, only to ensure that they all have the FW800 9-pin cable to ensure compatibility. (yes, I'm rooting for MacBook Air 2.0 to have some form of Firewire)

I really hope Apple pushes FW3200 hard. It's a great alternative to eSATA. Yes, eSATA cases will always be a bit cheaper, because they just have to pass through the SATA signal. But - you can't run a RAID off just any eSATA port. It has to be a PM port, and even then, you have to be sure to have the right type of enclosure that supports PM, etc. With FW3200 you can just daisy chain any type of FW3200 enclosure or even use a hub, and do RAID right away without having to fiddle with PM implementations.

I do agree with the poster who pointed out the shortcomings of USB3. That's going to be a terrible implementation, especially with the cables, having them look the same, but inside fundamentally different - it's going to be a support nightmare. Almost like when they had the issues with "full speed USB 2.0" and "high speed USB 2.0" when it first came out. UGH.

Here's to seeing FW3200 on our Macs sooner rather than later!

 

[swagi]

used a FireWire MiniDV with iMovie - worked like a charm

used a USB2 MiniDV - sucked big time

So, yeah, I'd love to see this new FW on my next Mac (combined with Nehalem, which I'm waiting for)

 

[DiamondMac]

I'm sorry I just don't get the "I WANT BLU RAY" chant. There are not many movies in this format yet

In January 2008, a day before CES 2008, Warner Brothers, the only major studio still releasing movies in both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc format, announced it would release only in Blu-ray Disc after May 2008. This effectively included other studios which came under the Warner umbrella, such as New Line Cinema and HBO, though in Europe HBO distribution partner the BBC announced it would, while keeping an eye on market forces, continue to release product on both formats. This led to a chain reaction in the industry, including major U.S. retailers such as Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Circuit City dropping HD DVD in their stores. A major European retailer, Woolworths, dropped HD DVD from its inventory. Netflix and Blockbuster, major DVD rental companies, said they would no longer carry HD DVDs. Following these new developments, on 19 February 2008, Toshiba announced it would be ending production of HD DVD devices,[35] allowing Blu-ray Disc to become the industry standard for high-density optical disks. Universal Studios, the sole major movie studio to back HD DVD since inception, shortly after Toshiba's announcement, said "while Universal values the close partnership we have shared with Toshiba, it is time to turn our focus to releasing new and catalog titles on Blu-ray Disc."[36] Paramount Studios, which started releasing movies only in HD DVD format during late 2007, also said it would start releasing in Blu-ray Disc. Both studios announced initial Blu-ray lineups in May 2008. With this, all major Hollywood studios now support Blu-ray.[37]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc#End_of_the_format_war

 

[Loge]

This is about FW. Is every thread going to get taken over by a debate about Blu-ray?

I welcome this news, FW is great for audio interfaces and it is good to know it is moving forward.

 

[CrackedButter]

To those complaining about FW800 not being put in all Macs. Do you mean the iMac doesn't count? The Aluminum iMacs all come with FW800 standard. MBP's come with FW800 standard. If you look at it, more than half the different types of Macs Apple makes now - come with FW800. (MacPro, MBP, iMac, and Xserve) Makes plenty of sense to me now. And I'd not be surprised with this new standard, all Macs will have FW800 at a minimum, only to ensure that they all have the FW800 9-pin cable to ensure compatibility. (yes, I'm rooting for MacBook Air 2.0 to have some form of Firewire)

Yes the iMac doesn't count. Do you suggest then I should replace my laptop with an iMac then because it has FW800?

 

[branjosef]

About time Lookin forward to the speed bump

 

[branjosef]

Yes please!!!

I miss Morbo... Any news on whether Futurama is coming back. I saw Benders big break..hopefully more will get made