laptop at launches

Their is .

$20 adaptor card (for either desktop or laptop) to add firewire ports.

>

SOME 486's had the capability. Few and wayyyyy far in between.

The odd's are wayyy against it though

Ted Novak TRA#5512

Yeah but that's to add firewire to a system. I'm looking for a usb 2.0 to firewire adapter thingy.

Ted Novak TRA#5512

Chris Taylor Jr wrote:

I guess it all depends on whose specs you read. I'd use either, really. It's just that USB2 tends to be much more available.

Having never used Firewire myself, I relied upon the printed specs of several cases of USB2 gear I have purchased...

~Duane Phillips.

In practice Firewire 400 is faster. besides being hubless it has higher peak bandwidth because it has some functions similsr to a tuneling VPN that set up a "channel" dedicated to the data swap till it terminates.

USB is more like packet switching ala IP.

IP over firewire is also faster than USB2 I assume for the same reason. It probably simply has commands and features USB does not have.

Firewire 800 is scary fast and I have not seen anyone saturate it yet.

Jerry

I don't know if I'd compare it to tunneling VPN... VPN in practice is slower than normal transport, due to the added layer of security and encryption over an IP connection.

Maybe a better comparison would be switches vs. hubs... switches are better and faster than hubs because they route directly to the destination vs. broadcasting to all ports.

I just now saw:

saw that as you mention below, firewire 800 (1394b) now has a new version that is does to it what USB2 did to USB1. Very nice... will have to check this out...

~Duane "I love zippy IT tools(toys)" Phillips.

Point. I do not claim to be a hardware geek only a long time user.

Apple claims Firewire 800 can burst to 3200. Not sure what applications or hardware or whatever, but might make a good pipe into an infiniband router.

Jerry

exactly. EVEN if their was a FIrewire to USAB adaptor (and their is not) it would cost far more than just ADDING firewire to BOTH of your machines.

I got my Firewire PCMCIA card for $19.99

Bid $15 $4.99 shipping

I see fireware PCI cards all the tine for $20-$25 but I already have one so do not need it.

>

I like firewire because their is lower "overhead"

I notice a system slow down when I jack into usb2.0 (not as much on my new system but its still their)

but yes usb2 is FAR more prevalent on newer gadgets. firewire is pretty much used mostly for hard drives and video gear.

probably because the licensing fee is cheaper than firewire (sony I believe ?? or is it apple ??)

anyway also usb2 devices are almost always backward compatible with usb 1.1 spec at the slower speed.

which is very nice since you do not have to worry about what kind of port you have. you will just not get full speed if you have the older port BUT it will still work.

Chris Taylor

heheheheheh, now I want to go to Microcenter to get a firewire card! Mind you I don't need one but I *want* one :)

Odd, I no longer have a suitable car to soup up, so what do I do now... I soup up my pc :)

Ted Novak TRA#5512

Chris Taylor Jr wrote:

USB has been out longer and is thus engineered into more products popping right now. Firewire chips have been available for about a year or two only and we may start seeing a change to FW on smaller devices (iPod uses FW) as the actual lisencing and hardware requirements are the same or lower for FW vs USB now. Just a matter of adoption.

Jerry

ebay

better prices usually. except computer shows. I have seen firewire for as little as $15 at computer shows.

also if you want to upgrade your sound get an Audigy card (about $25-$35 at a computer) and far better sound than you will ever take full advantage of.

it has a built in firewire port so you get both at one shot.

effeciently

>

ahh jerry firewire has been out for AT LEAST 5 years IIRC

Ever since Mini DV came to market.

their is no non firewire mini dv camcorder.

if you mean being built into motherboards as a common feature maybe.

But the FW chips have only been abundantly available for a bit over 2 Before that they were in a Rev A status and spoken for for the most part. Now they are a shelf item.

Actually I think I found a firewire card at Microcenter for about 20 bones and they are located 2 miles from me.

The sound/firewire crd sounds like it be a good fit for me as my onbrd snd is adequate at best and I think it uses the cpu too much.

Thanks fer the tip!

Ted Novak TRA#5512

Chris Taylor Jr wrote:

Not sure but I bought my firewire/usb combo card almost 3 years ago. their were plenty on the shelf.

it was only $10 more at the time to get firewire and usb than just usb so I grabbed the one with firewire.

got 2 firewire 3 usb external and 1 internal firewire (handy for front drive bay plug extension bay no external cable routing)

Chris Taylor

How about this for geek points?

Hook up the parellel port to some transistor controlled relays (dont forget the clamping diode) and use it as a multi-pad launch system. The parellel port also has inputs so you can still have those kill and abort switches we all love. Hell, you could even install electronic valves on your fire supression system and hook it up to some temperature sensors. The TTL abilities of the parellel port are amazing for these kind of automation tasks.

Software: NTport, visual basic API's, DOS debug?

--Chris Dunkinson

Jerry,

I'm surprised that a Mac fan like you missed this. Firewire chipsets have been available since the first iMacs were introduced, about 5 years ago. I don't know if the iMacs had FW but the PowerMacs of the time did. The cost of FW was mostly driven by its higher data rate and the $0.25 license to Apple. Th advantages of FW include longer cabling, masterless busses, and better performance on A/V data. The newest MowerMacs have FW 800. USB 2.0 speeds is a NICE improvment (well into the data rates needed for higher end scanners and broadcast quality video).

The arrival of the USB only iMacs drove demand for the then pathetic assortment of USB devices and was enough of a user base for many perripherial makers to drop their serial/parallel devices and make only USB (or at least limit their legacy offerings) . Most ATX MOBOs even legacy motherboards had USB support. I recall that Win 98 got USB support in a later service patch if it was not there originally.

I've heard rumblings that USB 1.1 is being re-numbered into USB 2.0. Because most of the Mac line had FW support, Apple was late in adding USB 2.0 until the most recent releases. Like FW, USB 2.0 chipsets do cost more to add because the higher data rate makes them more complex.

Agreed but Rev B (of the TI chips IIRC) was not "on the shelves" and ready for "contemperaneous" purchase till some time (years) after that. A requirement for many small doodad vendors. I don't even see firewire on scanners where it is needed over USB 1.1.

Apple was an early adopter because they were forwarding it (IEEE 1394) as a standard and to some extent competing with USB 2 for mindshare.

It was intentionally late adding USB2 to force users into FW400.

Jerry