[slider]

Did I miss something. Are there some kind of advantages to USB 2.0 over Firewire, even 1.0. Is there a reason that Apple would put on both USB 2.0 and Firewire on the Power Macs? I know that USB 2.0 is a little faster than Firewire currently, but were is the big advantage. I don't understand. Not to mention that FW 2 is going to be twice as fast, so again, what the hell. I know all about Apple getting a piece of the pie everytime FW is used and some manufactuers think it's a little high, but like everything else the more that's out there the cheaper it gets. All this really is is Intel trying to bite into the market , right? Tell me what's going on.

[OldManMac]

There are no advantages to USB 2.0 over Fire Wire: Intel is pushing USB 2.0, because Apple invented Fire Wire, and Intel can't stand the thought of losing to Apple. There are actually disadvantages to USB. One of those is that USB is actually a bottleneck on the system bus, especially on Windoze machines. In Windoze, there are a limited number of IRQs, or Interrupt requests. This means that when a device needs to do something, it may interrupt something else already in progress. Although this process isn't discernible without instruments, Fire Wire doesn't have this problem, so it's a dedicated, always available, port. Also, even though USB has been around about 4 years, it can still be problem prone. Even some Macs exhibit odd behavior with USB devices: my G4/400 freezes up intermittently when I use my Adesso USB keyboard, wih my Apple Optical mouse. Also, at the Apple Specialist reseller where I work, we see sporadic problems caused by USB.

As to Apple including USB 2.0 in future Power Macs, that has not been confirmed yet, but it wouldn't surprise me. The battle for the high speed bus has been won by Apple with Fire Wire. Most high speed devices, such as digital camcorders, and scanners aimed at the small business market, already have Fire Wire connections, so the impetus is already there. It even makes sense to include USB 2.0, just so that all bases are covered.

[-Q-]

Apple's philosophy has always been that USB is for devices that don't require a high bandwidth (mice, keyboards) and probably won't ever implement USB 2 because they have FireWire to meet their high bandwidth needs....

[nana2]

Originally posted by KarlG:
<STRONG>There are no advantages to USB 2.0 over Fire Wire: Intel is pushing USB 2.0, because Apple invented Fire Wire, and Intel can't stand the thought of losing to Apple. There are actually disadvantages to USB. One of those is that USB is actually a bottleneck on the system bus, especially on Windoze machines. In Windoze, there are a limited number of IRQs, or Interrupt requests. This means that when a device needs to do something, it may interrupt something else already in progress. Although this process isn't discernible without instruments, Fire Wire doesn't have this problem, so it's a dedicated, always available, port. </STRONG>

All I/O devices require an interrupt, Firewire included. The problem of limited numbers of IRQ's was solved a while time ago with win2k and ACPI virtual IRQ sharing. When you start to transfer something thru a Firewire port, the CPU has to be interrupted to let it know what you are doing. Of course Firewire is far superior in terms of peer-to-peer connections, without HAVING to have a computer in the middle to make things work. And being able to have bus-powered (decent amounts) devices is always a plus