High Performance Serial Bus


High Performance Serial Bus

(bus, standard)(Or "IEEE 1394", "FireWire", "I-Link") A1995 Macintosh/IBM PC serial bus interface standardoffering high-speed communications and isochronousreal-time data services.

1394 can transfer data between a computer and itsperipherals at 100, 200, or 400 Mbps, with a planedincrease to 2 Gbps. Cable length is limited to 4.5 m but upto 16 cables can be daisy-chained yielding a total length of72 m.

It can daisy-chain together up to 63 peripherals in atree-like structure (as opposed to SCSI's linear structure).It allows peer-to-peer device communication, such ascommunication between a scanner and a printer, to takeplace without using system memory or the CPU. It isdesigned to support plug-and-play and hot swapping. Itssix-wire cable is not only more convenient than SCSI cablesbut can supply up to 60 watts of power, allowinglow-consumption devices to operate without a separate powercord.

Some expensive camcorders have included this bus since Autumn1995. It is expected to be used to carry SCSI, withpossible application to home automation using repeaters.

See also Universal Serial Bus, FC-AL.