FireWire (IEEE 1394)

FireWire, or IEEE 1394, is a peripheral standard originally developed by Apple Computer that allows devices to interconnect and exchange information at a very high rate of speed.

IEEE 1394 (1995) and IEEE 1394a (2000) provided data transfers at 400Mbps. IEEE 1394b (2002) allows data to transfer at rates of 800Mbps, with the possibility to scale to 3.2Gbps.

FireWire has competition: USB. For years, there has been debate over which standard will ultimately win in the market. It seems that both standards have been adopted by most computer manufacturers and peripheral manufacturers select the type of connection based on their own requirements.

Resources: Apple's FireWire Site, 1394 Trade Association

See Also: Universal Serial Bus (USB)