A FireWire® converter connects FireWire® devices to different ports and converts FireWire® 400 to 800. Converters come as adapter hubs, cables, and cards. Different types of converters can convert between FireWire® and USB. FireWire® connections work like USB connections, but FireWire® had superior transfer speeds until USB 3.0.
A FireWire® converter is a device used to connect a FireWire® device to a different type of port or vice versa. Converters can also be used to convert FireWire® 400 connections to 800. Several converters come as adapter hubs, cables, and cards that plug into your computer. A FireWire® converter is required because different types of cables cannot be used with the same port due to their different shapes. Like Universal Serial Bus (USB) connections, FireWire® is a way for devices to communicate with computers at high speed.
There are different types of FireWire® converters, but they all do the same basic job. Cable converters have one type of connection at one end and another type of connection at the other end. Hub adapter style converters are boxes that have a set of ports on one side and one type of connector on the other side. A FireWire® converter may also ship as a multi-port card that plugs directly into your computer.
Many different conversions can be done by a FireWire® converter. The most common need is to convert between FireWire® and USB, or vice versa. Different generations of FireWire®, such as 400 and 800, have different connections. You can find converters that allow users to use old cables with the new ports. Most of these converters can be found in the form of a cable, adapter and card.
Converters are required because different cables will not fit into ports designed for other cables. For example, a USB port and cable are perfectly rectangular in shape, but a FireWire® port and cable have a slightly tapered end. The maximum speed of the connections also differ, which would make their use interchangeable. Users with a FireWire® connection on a digital camera but no matching port on their computer would not be able to transfer data without the help of a FireWire® converter.
FireWire® connections work the same way as more common USB connections. Most computer users need something to help different devices communicate with each other. Both USB and FireWire® aim to address this need by providing simple connections between computers and external devices such as cameras and external hard drives. For most of the two connections’ history, FireWire® had superior transfer speeds, with USB 2.0 delivering 480 megabytes per second and FireWire® 800 delivering 800 megabytes per second. The next generation of USB connection, USB 3.0, is even faster, with a theoretical file transfer limit of 5 gigabytes per second.
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