USB 2.0 is UP to 480 MB speed , ieee1394 are up to 800MB
The Firewire IEEE 1394a Cable
A duo of two twisted pair conductors form an IEEE1394 cable. These cables are similar to those used for 10BaseT Ethernet. The cable is a 6-wire shielded twisted-pair type, where 2 pairs are used for communicating and the remaining pair is used to carry power up to 1.5 Amps at up to 40 Volt. Cable lengths are limited to 4.5 meters (15 feet), but can be boosted to 72 meters (235 feet) if a repeater is used. Using "fairness" arbitration to ensure that all devices obtain access to the pipe, IEEE1394 also multiplexes different types of digital signals like video, digitized audio, MIDI, as well as device control commands.
The Firewire IEEE 1394b Cable
Fireeire 800 cables promise a much higher total data speed, 800Mpbs, twice that of the original FireWire standard. They use a special 9-pin connector, compliant with the IEEE 1394b standard, and in addition to speed increases have some new features that improve reliability of data. You will use these cables with new, faster 800Mbps products. There are versions of this cable that may have 4 or 6 pin standard IEEE1394a connectors, that are able to connect in a backward compatible fashion with older firewire devices.
