FireWire® 800 is a fast data transfer hardware model for electronic devices, invented by Apple in 1986 and adapted to Windows. It allows up to 63 devices to be connected and has backward compatibility. It’s commonly used for gaming, digital video transfer, and high-speed information storage. FireWire® technology was developed by Apple in collaboration with other major technology companies.
FireWire® 800 is a fast data transfer hardware model for various electronic devices from personal computers to digital cameras that uses a serial bus architecture first invented by the Apple® company in 1986. It has since been adapted to computer systems that run based on the Windows ® Operating System created by Microsoft® Corporation and often referred to by the “IEEE 1394” specification of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Like the popular Universal Serial Bus (USB) port on many computers and other electronic data storage devices as of 2011, the FireWire® interface was intended to be a form of universal connection for various consumer electronic devices. Initially, FireWire® 400 was the standard, where up to 400 megabits per second (Mbps) of data could be transferred, and FireWire® 800 was an improvement in 2002 that doubled this speed, sometimes referred to as IEEE 1394b.
One of the unique benefits of Firewire® technology that hasn’t seen much use in the consumer market as of 2011 is that it allows you to connect a variety of devices together. The 1394 specification allows up to 63 devices to be connected, and the expected 1394.1 specification would allow more than 60,000 devices to be connected together using Firewire® cables. The cables themselves, however, only fit specific devices. There are three types of Firewire® cables, with the 6-pin design being the original one molded for computer systems manufactured by Apple® Corporation. The 4-pin model was created for Windows®-based computers and a special 9-pin cable also routes a power supply to the electronic device which it connects to where needed.
Another unique advantage of FireWire® 800 over USB architecture is backward compatibility. This means that a FireWire® 800 port connected to a FireWire® 400 port can still transmit data at 800 Mbps. A USB 2.0 architecture, however, will drop to the speed of a USB 1.0 architecture if both USB 2.0 and USB 1.0 ports are connected via cable. However, the cable limit on both architectures is quite short, with the effective limit for data transfer on a FireWire® 800 device being a maximum cable length of 15 feet (4.6 meters).
While the IEEE 1394 port for FireWire® 400 or FireWire® 800 is nearly as common on personal computers and cameras as the USB port as of 2011, it tends to have more specialized uses. Since data transfer via FireWire® 800 is approximately twice the speed of USB 2.0, it is commonly used when large files need to be moved quickly from one device to another. These types of applications include gaming, digital video transfer, and high-speed information storage in corporate environments. FireWire® also has the disadvantage of not being compatible with many other types of high-speed video transfer cables used since 2011, such as the use of High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) cables.
FireWire® technology was developed by Apple® in collaboration with the work of engineers from other major technology companies such as Texas Instruments Incorporated in the United States and Sony® Corporation in Japan. Thanks to this joint effort, these companies also have their own brands for the technology, with Texas Instruments labeling their FireWire® ports as Lynx® and Sony labeling them as i.LINK. A FireWire® 800 port may also be commonly labeled as IEEE 1394, 1394 only, or a digital video (DV) port. Other devices may not have a label identifying FireWire® at all and instead use a Y-shaped diagram to indicate that the port is actually a FireWire® interface.
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