FireWire® cables come in 4-pin, 6-pin, and 9-pin varieties, with different uses and data rates. FireWire® 400 has a max transfer rate of 400Mbps, while FireWire® 800 has a max transfer rate of 800Mbps and uses a larger 9-pin connector. Adapters and specialized cables are also available.
There are different types of FireWire® cables, and while all are used to transfer data, each type has a slightly different use. Available varieties include 4-pin, 6-pin, and 9-pin varieties, and adapters such as FireWire-to-Universal Serial Bus (USB). The type you require will be determined by several factors, including the physical FireWire® ports themselves and the speed at which data will be transferred.
FireWire®, also known as IEEE 1394 and based on standards set forth by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), is similar to USB but is a different method of transferring data over a physical cable. Similar to USB, FireWire® has different data rates, but unlike USB, FireWire® cables don’t always have the same physical connectors. They are therefore not backwards compatible as USB cables tend to be. The old transfer standard for IEEE 1394 was called FireWire® 400 and was named for its maximum data transfer rate of 400 megabits per second. FireWire® cables based on this standard are limited to 14.8 feet (about 4.5 m) in length, although multiple cables may be connected together in succession.
Cables based on the 400 standard have four or six pins. Most of these cables have the same connector on each end, but if needed, FireWire® cables are available with a 4-pin connector on one end and a 6-pin connector on the other. 6-pin connectors are the most common type and almost always plug into a computer, hard drive, or other electronic device that stores or processes data. The much smaller 4-pin connectors are typically used on mobile electronic devices or other types of data collectors. For example, some digital video cameras use 4-pin connectors.
A newer IEEE 1394 standard, FireWire® 800, came into use in 2002. It had the advantage of allowing cable lengths up to 32 feet (about 9.7 m) and doubling the possible data throughput to 800 megabits per second. The downside of the improvements was the introduction of a larger 9-pin connector. This meant that older FireWire® cables based on the older 400 standard could not be used to connect to the newer ports.
Cables based on the FireWire® 800 standard use 9-pin connectors on both ends. There are also FireWire® cables available that have a 9-pin connector on one end and an older 4-pin or 6-pin connector on the other. This allows the use of FireWire® 400 devices on computers that have FireWire® 800 ports.
Cables are also available for more specialized connections using FireWire®. Firewire to USB adapters are available. Some devices use a FireWire® connector on one end and a specialized connector on the other. These rarer FireWire® cables tend to be more expensive than regular FireWire® cables.
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