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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > Firewire 800 Periphrials?

Firewire 800 Periphrials?
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SMacSteve
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Jan 12, 2003, 11:13 AM
 
What if any CD/RW's have been announced that take advantage of the new standard? Does anyone know if the new standard will give any benifits to CD/RW? I can see the benefits of a DVD-R external Firewire 800 being such a high data transfer and I suspect we'll see some externals announced soon.
     
icruise
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Jan 12, 2003, 11:38 AM
 
As far as I know there aren't any peripherals available that actually use Firewire 800 yet -- it was just announced a few days ago, and only one computer in the world uses it at the moment (and that computer is not yet available for purchase). There were some announcements at Macworld, but nothing is actually for sale yet.

In any case, with things like CD-RW and DVD-R drives, I don't think firewire 400 is actually limiting their speed. That is, I think there is still a fair amount of room left in the amount of bandwidth firewire 400 provides. It's more the drive itself, rather than the connection between the drive and the computer, that is the problem.

This does sort of bring up the question of what firewire 800 is actually good for. Not many people were complaining about firewire 400's speed, as far as I know. It seems like it more of a response to the supposed speed of USB 2 than an answer to any realworld problems. I guess what I mean is that with the peripherals we currently have, hard disks, CD-R drives and whatnot, firewire 400 is fast enough. I think it may take a totally new kind of peripheral to really take advantage of the speed.
( Last edited by icruise; Jan 12, 2003 at 11:44 AM. )
     
MaxPower2k3
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Jan 12, 2003, 12:15 PM
 
maybe some kind of flash mass-storage device? I know one company (don't remember which) has already announced 1.5, 2, and 3GB compact flash cards that fit into the Type 1 form factor. USB1.1 would be severly limiting to this, and i imagine even Firewire wouldnt keep up with the possible transfer speeds. Maybe if companies start making external flash drives for general storage, Firewire 800 would have a use.
     
seanyepez
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Jan 12, 2003, 06:03 PM
 
Originally posted by Icruise:
There were some announcements at Macworld, but nothing is actually for sale yet.
Hey! That's me!

CompactFlash is also limited in its transfer speeds. FireWire 400 is more than enough to accomodate the maximum transfer rates of a CF card or hard drive.
     
DaedalusDX
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Jan 12, 2003, 07:53 PM
 
You'll see a dramatic difference with firewire RAID solutions.

Lacie's 400 and 500 GB Big Disks are such, i believe.

Alot of it is about bragging rights for USB 2.0... take that USB 2.0! know your place... way under firewire.
     
Superchicken
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Jan 12, 2003, 10:14 PM
 
Originally posted by DaedalusDX:
You'll see a dramatic difference with firewire RAID solutions.

Lacie's 400 and 500 GB Big Disks are such, i believe.

Alot of it is about bragging rights for USB 2.0... take that USB 2.0! know your place... way under firewire.
Aww look at poor USB 2

I think it's largely so Apple can stilll say their's is bigger
Not to mention have something for when people need it. Firewire was pretty useless as I remember it for most things aside from very select pro ussages.

Firewire 800 will probably live 2-3 years in obsurity outside of the apple cult following... after that when things catch up to it it'll have 2 years before intel releases USB 3 and it'll start all over again. Firewire two will get thigns as high end as Firewire got, the future equivilant of digitial camcorders... and USB 2 will have things like MP3 players, digital cammeras that take gygundo shots and so on and so forth.
     
FauxCaster
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Jan 12, 2003, 11:50 PM
 
Firewire2 is -trying- to be the standard for high-end audio/video in the automotive industry. Found that out at CES. (Also using it for networking). Supposedly BMW & Mercedes will have firwire2 in the top end.
     
Eriamjh
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Jan 13, 2003, 09:14 AM
 
Supposedly BMW & Mercedes will have firwire2 in the top end.
Huh? FW800 in a mercedes? For what purpose?

I think FW800 (FW2 is so... USB2 like) will become the standard for High definition TV tranmission. Possibly for uncompressed transmission of data for HD.

I'm a bird. I am the 1% (of pets).
     
   
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