9 ms·

Does a USB-C to FireWire exist?

smoser 10y ago
TB2->FW + TB3->TB2 in theory. http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD464LL/A/apple-thunderbolt-to-firewire-adapter http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD464LL/A/apple-thunderbol...
- stuckagain 10y ago
  Exactly the chain of adapters that beat was complaining of.
  - an_account 10y ago
    FireWire has been dead for years, it's time for an upgrade.
    - beat 10y ago
      Firewire is very much alive in my house. Why is it "dead"? Why do I have to upgrade?
      - bluejekyll 10y ago
        You don't have to upgrade. Don't upgrade... but if you do, there are adapters for you that will allow you to continue using your old gear.
        beat 10y ago
        It's not just hardware. Apple has officially abandoned Firewire protocol maintenance. We're okay at the moment, but how many more MacOS upgrades will we have where Firewire still works? And I'm not an outlier case. There are a lot of audio professionals and semi-pros that depend on old Firewire interfaces. These were Apple's market for selling high-end laptops! This is basically just disregard for your oldest and frankly most profitable customers. If I didn't feel like a new MBP would actually be sacrificing functionality, I'd probably have upgraded already. Instead, I'm considering a platform switch. That's bad.
        dkonofalski 10y ago
        They clearly are not Apple's most profitable customers if they're abandoning the tech. If they were Apple's most profitable customers, you'd see Firewire on everything.
        dkonofalski 10y ago
        I should clarify that I meant that Apple is abandoning the tech, not the customers.
        guitarbill 10y ago
        out of interest, which platform still has better firewire support? most windows laptops don't have them either. btw, as someone who didn't use firewire, i hated that port. waste of space, could have used an extra usb port instead. and it wasn't like there was a lot of gear that used it, unlike e.g. ethernet or vga which sometimes came in handy (i also loath vga).
        srssays 10y ago
        In the beginning, USB1 was no competition for Firewire. 12Mbps vs 400Mbps. USB2 was more competitive, but Firewire stuck around due to its lower latency for audio applications.
        threeseed 10y ago
        FireWire is a EOL technology at this point so why would they be continuing to work on the protocol ? And actually you aren't Apple's most profitable customer since you are still clamouring for old technologies. It's early adopters that upgrade every year that are the most valuable to Apple.
      - threeseed 10y ago
        You could replace FireWire in that sentence with LaserDiscs, BetaMax etc. Fact is some technologies just don't take off enough to warrant long term support.
  - muninn_ 10y ago
    We're living in a transitory period as we move from a world of wires and connectors to a wireless world. This is the pain we have to endure as technology is pushed forward. If it were up to the luddites and their obsession with compatibility, a laptop would have a dvd drive, firewire, usb-a, usb-c, thunderbolt, hdmi, dvi, vga, sd, microsd,vga, and display port all in one laptop chassis. Having one single port, that can do all those things and do them just as well, is a far preferable alternative. Couple that with the future transition to wireless-only technology, and we're on our way to the future.
    - stuckagain 10y ago
      As soon as someone invents an isochronous wireless interface with guaranteed throughput and latency, I'm sure all the recording studios will switch to that.
      - muninn_ 10y ago
        Buy a desktop or a special interface port if you need something specialized.
        avn2109 10y ago
        His point is that fundamental physics and information theory limit how good a wireless link can be. So wired links will always perform better and therefore high-end audio engineering will run cables forever.
        beat 10y ago
        Technically, you could create an isosynchronous wireless protocol. But 802.11 ain't it, and neither is Bluetooth. Both are very tolerant of lag and have little guarantee of latency.
        cwyers 10y ago
        "Buy a desktop" in a thread about deficiencies in Apple laptops is a joke, right?
wlesieutre 10y ago
If you're only using FireWire at a desk, look at thunderbolt docks. OWC's TB3 dock will have a FireWire 800 port. It's a bit pricey at $300, but will also get you a power supply (so you can leave the original in your bag), displayport, gigabit ethernet, S/PDIF, and a bunch of USB-A all over a single cable.
bsder 10y ago
If only there were a wired protocol that is high-speed, has a standard connector, can deliver power, and has both bandwidth and latency controls ... wouldn't that be wonderful? Then we wouldn't have to reinvent all of these wires. (Yes, sarcasm. That protocol is called Ethernet. And basically every high-speed interface we currently have is a bad reimplementation of it for political reasons.)
- jjoonathan 10y ago
  How I long for the day when I can configure the subnet mask of my mouse, the mDNS settings of my graphics card, and the routing table of my PCH! (Yes, sarcasm. Two can play.)
  - rbanffy 10y ago
    You know using IP is not a requirement for using Ethernet.
    - jjoonathan 10y ago
      Yes, I do.
  - foxhill 10y ago
    ethernet has as much to do with TCP/IP and DNS as does radio waves with FM radio. ethernet is a wire protocol upon which a TCP/IP stack runs on top of. if USB looked a lot more like ethernet, it would be far easier to write drivers for devices.
    - jjoonathan 10y ago
      USB and PCIe are not layer 2 protocols, they're vertical over layers 1-6 so I filled in the blanks of the proposal, such as it was. If you want to pick nits, do it with bsder, comparing the two is his idea. > it would be far easier to write drivers for devices I can only assume this comes from a place of "I know a bit about ethernet and would like to transfer that knowledge to the embedded space." It certainly doesn't come from a place of "I write drivers for the USB and PCIe stacks and think ethernet would make my job easier." There's also the matter of what HW/FW likes, which probably has greater bearing on the situation than what SW likes, and I can assure you that they'd be even less enthusiastic about the replacement than I am. Proof: they've got a choice! If they wanted to use ethernet, they could just do it. They don't. For good reason.

TB2->FW + TB3->TB2 in theory. http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD464LL/A/apple-thunderbolt-to-firewire-adapter http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD464LL/A/apple-thunderbol...

stuckagain 10y ago
Exactly the chain of adapters that beat was complaining of.
- an_account 10y ago
  FireWire has been dead for years, it's time for an upgrade.
  - beat 10y ago
    Firewire is very much alive in my house. Why is it "dead"? Why do I have to upgrade?
    - bluejekyll 10y ago
      You don't have to upgrade. Don't upgrade... but if you do, there are adapters for you that will allow you to continue using your old gear.
      - beat 10y ago
        It's not just hardware. Apple has officially abandoned Firewire protocol maintenance. We're okay at the moment, but how many more MacOS upgrades will we have where Firewire still works? And I'm not an outlier case. There are a lot of audio professionals and semi-pros that depend on old Firewire interfaces. These were Apple's market for selling high-end laptops! This is basically just disregard for your oldest and frankly most profitable customers. If I didn't feel like a new MBP would actually be sacrificing functionality, I'd probably have upgraded already. Instead, I'm considering a platform switch. That's bad.
        dkonofalski 10y ago
        They clearly are not Apple's most profitable customers if they're abandoning the tech. If they were Apple's most profitable customers, you'd see Firewire on everything.
        dkonofalski 10y ago
        I should clarify that I meant that Apple is abandoning the tech, not the customers.
        guitarbill 10y ago
        out of interest, which platform still has better firewire support? most windows laptops don't have them either. btw, as someone who didn't use firewire, i hated that port. waste of space, could have used an extra usb port instead. and it wasn't like there was a lot of gear that used it, unlike e.g. ethernet or vga which sometimes came in handy (i also loath vga).
        srssays 10y ago
        In the beginning, USB1 was no competition for Firewire. 12Mbps vs 400Mbps. USB2 was more competitive, but Firewire stuck around due to its lower latency for audio applications.
        threeseed 10y ago
        FireWire is a EOL technology at this point so why would they be continuing to work on the protocol ? And actually you aren't Apple's most profitable customer since you are still clamouring for old technologies. It's early adopters that upgrade every year that are the most valuable to Apple.
    - threeseed 10y ago
      You could replace FireWire in that sentence with LaserDiscs, BetaMax etc. Fact is some technologies just don't take off enough to warrant long term support.
- muninn_ 10y ago
  We're living in a transitory period as we move from a world of wires and connectors to a wireless world. This is the pain we have to endure as technology is pushed forward. If it were up to the luddites and their obsession with compatibility, a laptop would have a dvd drive, firewire, usb-a, usb-c, thunderbolt, hdmi, dvi, vga, sd, microsd,vga, and display port all in one laptop chassis. Having one single port, that can do all those things and do them just as well, is a far preferable alternative. Couple that with the future transition to wireless-only technology, and we're on our way to the future.
  - stuckagain 10y ago
    As soon as someone invents an isochronous wireless interface with guaranteed throughput and latency, I'm sure all the recording studios will switch to that.
    - muninn_ 10y ago
      Buy a desktop or a special interface port if you need something specialized.
      - avn2109 10y ago
        His point is that fundamental physics and information theory limit how good a wireless link can be. So wired links will always perform better and therefore high-end audio engineering will run cables forever.
        beat 10y ago
        Technically, you could create an isosynchronous wireless protocol. But 802.11 ain't it, and neither is Bluetooth. Both are very tolerant of lag and have little guarantee of latency.
      - cwyers 10y ago
        "Buy a desktop" in a thread about deficiencies in Apple laptops is a joke, right?

wlesieutre 10y ago

If you're only using FireWire at a desk, look at thunderbolt docks. OWC's TB3 dock will have a FireWire 800 port. It's a bit pricey at $300, but will also get you a power supply (so you can leave the original in your bag), displayport, gigabit ethernet, S/PDIF, and a bunch of USB-A all over a single cable.

bsder 10y ago

If only there were a wired protocol that is high-speed, has a standard connector, can deliver power, and has both bandwidth and latency controls ... wouldn't that be wonderful? Then we wouldn't have to reinvent all of these wires. (Yes, sarcasm. That protocol is called Ethernet. And basically every high-speed interface we currently have is a bad reimplementation of it for political reasons.)

jjoonathan 10y ago
How I long for the day when I can configure the subnet mask of my mouse, the mDNS settings of my graphics card, and the routing table of my PCH! (Yes, sarcasm. Two can play.)
- rbanffy 10y ago
  You know using IP is not a requirement for using Ethernet.
  - jjoonathan 10y ago
    Yes, I do.
- foxhill 10y ago
  ethernet has as much to do with TCP/IP and DNS as does radio waves with FM radio. ethernet is a wire protocol upon which a TCP/IP stack runs on top of. if USB looked a lot more like ethernet, it would be far easier to write drivers for devices.
  - jjoonathan 10y ago
    USB and PCIe are not layer 2 protocols, they're vertical over layers 1-6 so I filled in the blanks of the proposal, such as it was. If you want to pick nits, do it with bsder, comparing the two is his idea. > it would be far easier to write drivers for devices I can only assume this comes from a place of "I know a bit about ethernet and would like to transfer that knowledge to the embedded space." It certainly doesn't come from a place of "I write drivers for the USB and PCIe stacks and think ethernet would make my job easier." There's also the matter of what HW/FW likes, which probably has greater bearing on the situation than what SW likes, and I can assure you that they'd be even less enthusiastic about the replacement than I am. Proof: they've got a choice! If they wanted to use ethernet, they could just do it. They don't. For good reason.