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New Apple Portables To Drop FireWire Support?
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Mechcozmo said:
There are couple problems with bus power 1) unknown quanity as you have discovered. 2) No standardization of voltage. USB uses 5 volts and IEEE 1394a uses 12 volts.
I will throw in a third and forth which are related to each other in a way. Cable length and connector quality. With 5 volts there is not much noise immunity guard band so the cable and connector resistence comes into play if the cable is long, low quality or if the connector has resistance especially if daisy chained.
Twleve volts (FW800) allows for more noise immunity guard band if the hardware receiving the power needs 5 volts only. Cable length and connector quality will still be an issue, although probably not as much of an issue.
Then consider how the source supply in the computer is going to react to sudden changes in loading with hot plugging and shorts circuits whether intermediate or long term.
As an old circuit designer I tend to favor no power on the cables because costs start rising.
Jim
going FW 800
FW is not being discontinued. JUst switching from FW 400 to FW 800.
See this
http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/firewire_popularity_grows_this_year_fw_800_set_to_flourish_in_2006/
FW is not being discontinued. JUst switching from FW 400 to FW 800.
See this
http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/firewire_popularity_grows_this_year_fw_800_set_to_flourish_in_2006/
This has got to be the most ridiculous rumor I have ever heard. Just when iLink (FireWire) is getting popular with PCs, Apple is going to drop it? Get real!
Many video cameras need iLink to transfer videos, and USB ports aren't gonna cut it. As many have said earlier, Macs are often used for Video Editing, and is a crown jewel for the entire system. Without FireWire, Apple loses the only thing that the public perceives it to be good at.
Unless Apple feels suicidal right now, and decides to kill itself, FireWire is here to stay. Intel is not stupid enough to make Apple kill FireWire just when many of its PC clients are picking it up. It just doesn't make sense, at all.
Many video cameras need iLink to transfer videos, and USB ports aren't gonna cut it. As many have said earlier, Macs are often used for Video Editing, and is a crown jewel for the entire system. Without FireWire, Apple loses the only thing that the public perceives it to be good at.
Unless Apple feels suicidal right now, and decides to kill itself, FireWire is here to stay. Intel is not stupid enough to make Apple kill FireWire just when many of its PC clients are picking it up. It just doesn't make sense, at all.
channel2tv said:
I agree that killing FW400 (iLink) makes no sense.
The second issue is Apple needs to have a faster port to access to external drives. Neither FW400 or FW800 perform well enough when compared to external SATA which some PC's are being equipped with now.
Jim
cant you use any firewire device in a firewire 800 port.. i thought they were backwards compatable
slinky0390 said:
They are backward compatible electrical signals. The connectors are different with FW800 having more pins to accomodate adding power (12v) and ground. The additional pins and circuitry make FW800 more expensive to implement.
When a FW400 device is added to the chain the entire chain performs at FW400 levels.
Even with FW800 implemented that still leaves Apple short of performance for external hard drives compared to the current crop of Windows machines. Remember Apple, when the MacTel machines come out, will be the top shelve PC because it will be capable of running OS X, Windows and Linux native.
When a user wants they can buy one of these MacTel boxes and install all three operating systems. Then by using OS X exclusively for internet connectivity they can have all the Windows and Linux legacy stuff in a safe enviroment for less difference in cost than any Anti-what ever ware. Then they can stop doing the weekly maintenance associated with keeping the malware at bay on a Windows or Linux system. For buying an Apple box they get better hardware, more versatility and lower cost of ownership. For Apple to position themselves as that desktop provider they need to keep up to external I/O needs and industry standards. To me that means they need to get their external hard drive bottle neck fixed and there are no firewire solutions that can do that job.
Jim
Agreed. External SATA connector here we come!!prewwii said:
P.S. Apple should replace the FW800 connector with an external SATA connector (already available on a lot of the recent PC motherboards I have been seeing.) They should keep the FireWire 400 connectors around, because I have seen many a camcorder use it. However, I have never seen a FireWire 800 device, and I don't think I ever will. SATA is 3.0 Gb/s!! Bouyah!!
no way
this is a bogus rumor. Apple itself has FireWire peripherls, such as the iSight. it's 150USD. if they scrap the Firewire for the iSight, there will be many unhappy customers. (unless iSight will be built in to every single laptop and desktop of the future??)
this is a bogus rumor. Apple itself has FireWire peripherls, such as the iSight. it's 150USD. if they scrap the Firewire for the iSight, there will be many unhappy customers. (unless iSight will be built in to every single laptop and desktop of the future??)
Demon said:
wouldn't be the first time Apple makes us buy new hardware when the current hardware works just fine. But in any case, I doubt Firewire will be dropped. I don't see any reason why.
What would everyone do with External Firewire Hard Drives, etc.
