Firewire 800 (IEEE 1394b)

[bonanza]

What devices use this type of connection currently ? Is it designed to replace Firewire 400(IEEE 1394a) ?

Thx.

 

[magicman]

It's designed to be the replacement to 400, yes, in the same way that USB 1.0/1.1 was replaced by USB 2.0. Firewire 800 is backward compatible, meaning 400 devices work with it, albeit at a lower speed.

The kinds of devices you can expect to utilise Firewire 800 are the same kinds of devices you can expect to utilise USB 2.0, namely consumer electronics of all types (eg. hard drives, Apple products), plus an alternative to ethernet in networking.

 

[bonanza]

Firewire 800 is backward compatible, meaning 400 devices work with it, albeit at a lower speed.

Thank you for responding.

I've seen some system like apple mac pro (http://www.apple.com/macpro/specs.html) utilise both Firewire 400 and 800 with different ports (the 800 looks bigger). If the 800 port can be used for any device, isn't it unnecessary to utilise 400 port ?

 

[magicman]

The ports are slightly different, 400 is 6-pin and 800 is 9-pin. However they are still designed to be backward compatible. I'm not sure why that pc has two of each to be honest, unless it was to keep the cost down. That one's got me stumped.