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Keep The Home Fire Burning

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December 1, 2003 • Vol.1 Issue 1 Page(s) 140-141 in print issue
Keep The Home Fire Burning FireWire 800 Is Worth Getting Stoked About . . . Eventually

In the beginning, there was USB, and we saw that it was good.

OK, so the world of personal computing and its associated technologies had a long history before the Universal Serial Bus. But if you were using computers prior to USB's arrival, you'll probably remember that it was innovative enough to seem like a fresh beginning, consolidating into one simple port a grab bag of different connectivity standards. But at top speeds of 12Mbps (megabits per second), what USB wasn't, unfortunately, was fast. Although USB was fast enough for keyboards, mice, and routine printing, SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) still had the edge for more demanding tasks such as bulk data transfer—for example, copying several minutes worth of uncompressed audio or video from one hard drive to another.

Where There's Smoke, There's FireWire

Developed by Apple Computer in the mid-1990s, FireWire offered the same practical conveniences as USB but at breakthrough speeds of 400Mbps. In addition to high-speed external hard drives, FireWire's first major consumer use was in digital video and high-end still-image cameras, letting users quickly shuttle large files into their computers for editing. FireWire also spurred the recording industry's shift to digital studio technology because the new format increased bandwidth, which allowed multi-track audio to be recorded through a single cable.

FireWire's high-speed preeminence was supplanted in 2000 with the emergence of USB 2.0, which offered marginally higher speeds of 480Mbps. But in January 2003, FireWire was back on top with the rollout of FireWire 800. By utilizing the data-encoding schemes employed in Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 800 doubles its speed over the original version of FireWire (sometimes referred to as FireWire 400), and leaves USB 2.0 breathing its fumes.

We're beginning to see a split between FireWire and USB devices, with FireWire solidifying its position in devices such as external hard drives, recordable CD and DVD drives, and digital video and audio gear, in which data can never move too quickly.

On the other hand, USB is still the connection of choice for mice and keyboards. And a 2003 report by market research firm In-Stat/MDR finds that manufacturers of peripherals such as printers and scanners are increasingly going with the USB 2.0 standard, which is likely to furnish all the bandwidth these devices will need for the foreseeable future.

A Good Thing Gets Better

There's more to FireWire 800 than the obvious benefit of doubling the speed of FireWire 400. FireWire 800 features several less apparent improvements, and leaves room for future upgrades.

Here's how FireWire 800's speed matches up against the USB 2.0 standard and the original version of FireWire. Clearly, FireWire 800 burns the competition.

Backward compatibility. Few advances in technology are more annoying than those that leave you with a collection of old and new components that are not compatible with one another. FireWire 800 obviates such scenarios by ensuring that FireWire 400 hardware will communicate just fine with FireWire 800 products. The only catch is that you'll need to use an adapter cable to make FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 products work together.

FireWire 400 gear uses 4- and 6-pin connections. FireWire 800 products employ a 9-pin configuration. Two of the extra pins improve signal integrity. The other is reserved for future use, most likely to enable even faster speeds as FireWire evolves. As long as you use appropriate cabling, you can successfully link FireWire devices regardless of which generation they belong to, thanks to the FireWire 800 bus' intelligent use of operating modes.

If you have only FireWire 800 devices connected, the devices will operate in beta mode, at the new specification's higher speeds. In legacy mode, a group of FireWire 400 devices will still operate (at the same speed as they did before), even on an 800 bus. Finally, bilingual mode permits a mixed environment of FireWire 400 and 800 devices, while ensuring that each runs at its optimal speed.

Increased operational distance. Not only does FireWire 800 move data faster, it can also move data many times farther than the original FireWire specification allowed. FireWire 400 could only transfer data to a maximum of 4.5 meters, or roughly 15 feet. USB 2.0 doesn't significantly top that, with a maximum range of 17 feet. But the distance you can transfer data using FireWire 800 depends upon the kind of cables you use.

The premium conduit for long-distance FireWire 800 travel is a professional-grade glass optical fiber cable, which can be as long as 100 meters (330 feet) and still maintain top speed. This translates into the ability to pump a CD-ROM's worth of data just over the length of a football field in about 10 seconds. FireWire 800 products can use other types of cable, but doing so will result in lower data speeds, reduced distances, or both. Still, the ability to transfer data over long distances opens up a whole new world for both consumer and professional uses, allowing video, audio, and computer equipment to communicate between rooms or floors, and even between widely spaced outdoor installations. At press time, we were unable to verify availability and pricing for FireWire glass optical fiber cables, but for typical home and office use, standard twisted-pair copper cables with 9-pin connectors won't break the bank, usually listing between $20 and $25 for a 6-foot cable, and anywhere from $25 to $45 for a 14-foot length.

FireWire 800 isn't a dead end waiting to be surpassed by another technology in the next year or two. It will get even faster, eventually quadrupling in speed with transfer rates of up to 3200Mbps, or 3.2Gbps (gigabits per second). This means that FireWire 3200 (or whatever it's destined to be called) will be able to handle such demanding tasks as carrying uncompressed, high-definition video.

The More Things Change . . .

The FireWire 800 standard doesn't sacrifice the great qualities of FireWire 400 that made the original version such a success when it debuted. The following features of FireWire 400 were carried over into the new version.

FireWire 800 promises great strides in operational distances, as well as speeds, but how much you get of both depends on the kind of cabling you use.

Bus power. USB can transfer up to 2.5W (watts) of juice through its connection, which is only enough energy to power simple devices, such as keyboards and mice. Both FireWire standards deliver up to 45W, which lets devices such as external drives and MP3 players run with-out relying on another source of power.

Peer-to-peer connectivity. USB lacks the capacity for P2P (peer-to-peer) connections, which FireWire supports. This means FireWire devices can communicate with one another without needing an intermediary, such as a software driver. You could also link a device such as a video camera to several computers simultaneously by splitting the video camera's signal through a FireWire hub.

Isochronous delivery. Accuracy of data transfer is especially crucial for live, real-time applications such as video and audio recording, in which dropped, delayed, or out-of-order data can ruin the capture of a one-of-a-kind moment. FireWire's support for isochronous transmission, which guarantees a uniform data rate for time-dependent content, maintains the integrity of the data stream.

Mass connectivity. You can connect as many as 63 computers and peripherals to one another via a FireWire 400 or 800 bus, either through hubs or a daisy chain. That's only half the number USB allows (127 components), but we're still not crying. When was the last time 63 devices just didn't cut it for you?

Fast, But Not Quite Furious

When new and improved technologies and standards emerge, there is often a gap between the technology's theoretical maximum performance and the technology's actual performance. FireWire 800 is no different.

The devices on either end of a data transfer need to keep up with each other to achieve the transfer's maximum speed, and the relatively low read and write speeds of most current hard drives bog down data transfers to and from FireWire 800 devices. Thus far, only RAID (redundant array of independent disks) systems approach FireWire 800's top speed. Computer design can also slow down data transfers. A FireWire 800 PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) card would require a PC with a 64-bit slot in order to attain FireWire 800's theoretical maximum data transfer rate, but many computers have only 32-bit slots.

For personal computing, Apple's PowerMac G5 models, released late last summer, have a clear jump on FireWire's future. They ship with two FireWire 400 ports and one FireWire 800 port. For portable users, Apple's 17-inch G4 PowerBook and the latest version of the 15-inch G4 PowerBook are the only notebooks at this time with a FireWire 800 port. The G5s are also the first personal computers with a 64-bit processor.

However, the next iteration of the Macintosh operating system, OS X version 10.3 (which should be released by the time you read this), will remain a 32-bit rather than a 64-bit OS, as moving to a 64-bit platform would have created a problematic migratory path for developers. Still, OS X 10.3 will be optimized so that when running on a G5 processor, their combined power will squeeze more speed out of FireWire 800 peripherals than Apple's previous 10.2.x OS.

As of this writing, the most common FireWire 800 devices are hard drives, such as LaCie's D2 FireWire 800 external drive (list price $419 for a 200GB model). If you need to add the proper connections, you can do so with OrangeMicro's Orange-Link FireWire 800 PCI card (list price $89) or a number of other available PCI cards. In a limited scale thus far, FireWire 800 is also making inroads into network storage options, mainly RAID systems offering several hundred gigabytes of storage space, making them a better solution for a small office than a large company.

The Future Of FireWire

FireWire 800 (and beyond) will be a boon to audio and video applications. And, in contrast to the above-cited report from In-Stat/MDR, a recent report from ElectronicNews.com predicts that more FireWire 800 printers and scanners will appear as their pixel densities and color depths improve.

Most of us who use computers are, to one extent or another, familiar with high-speed connections. FireWire 800 seems like another natural evolution in computing standards. But home entertainment centers may benefit more from FireWire 800 than PCs.

We're slowly but surely seeing the advent of an all-digital specification in home theater and music setups. The move toward digital entertainment is due in part to digital's clear technical advantages, such as DVD-RAM television recorders that can play one source while recording another. The push to a digital home is on, and it will happen eventually.

A consortium of PC and consumer electronics producers known as the 1394 Trade Association (www.1394ta.org) is laboring to make FireWire the industry standard for linking everything: TVs, set-top boxes, receivers, players, recorders, gaming consoles, and speakers. The 1394 Trade Association would like to see each system component serviced by just two FireWire ports: one to relay data and one to receive it.

Such a move would create a new headache, though: the logistics of plugging older non-FireWire components into a new FireWire environment. Few people can afford to jettison thousands of dollars worth of equipment and start over from scratch, so there will likely be a long phase in which adapters link older products with the FireWire devices of the future. But it's a future we like the look and sound of . . . whatever its speed of arrival.

by Brian Hodge

What's In A Name?

So, officially speaking, is FireWire called FireWire, as Apple Com-puter originally christened it, or is it that string of letters and numbers that you can't always quite remember? Well, yes . . . and yes. It depends on your frame of reference.

While this smokin' standard was indeed developed by Apple Com-puter, early on it was officially referred to by its platform-neutral specification designation of IEEE 1394-1995, in order to help facilitate its assimilation by other manufacturers. At the time, FireWire was Apple's brand name for its implementation of the standard, just as Sony used the name i.Link for Sony products. To further muddy the waters, a slight revision to the standard in 2000 resulted in the moniker IEEE 1394a.

In June 2002, however, the IEEE 1394 Trade Association formally adopted FireWire as the official industry name for IEEE 1394, for marketing and compliance labeling. So you can freely use it without insecure PC users accusing you of being Mac-centric.

Of course, now that FireWire 800 is here (that's IEEE 1394b to you tech talk aficionados), the earlier specification is often referred to as FireWire 400, just to keep everyone on the same page.

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