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Firewire was 400MBits for 5 years before USB2 was released (USB1 was only 12MBits). Look who won that one.
by rythie 16y ago
Firewire was 400MBits for 5 years before USB2 was released (USB1 was only 12MBits). Look who won that one.
- pyre 16y agoIIRC, it was because Intel made USB chipsets really cheap vs IEEE1394a (aka FireWire) chipsets.
- ZeroGravitas 16y agoI recall it being because Apple screwed up the licensing so bad ($1 per port) that everyone got together to create and then push USB 2.0 as a replacement even after the royalties got reduced to something semi-reasonable like 25c per device.
- __david__ 16y agoI worked at a place that developed FireWire peripherals. I can tell you the $1/port price never mattered to us, despite the loud backlash on the internet. The real reason USB "won" is because Intel really pushed it and integrated it into every one of their chipsets. Possibly even licensing it to the other PC chipset makers for cheap/free up front. Given that Intel is backing Thunderbolt, it stands a good chance at achieving the same widespread usage.
- calloc 16y agoUSB can easily be emulated and done using just the CPU, no chips required while Firewire required a real chip that did the negotiation and sat directly on the memory bus for DMA.
- Uchikoma 16y agoI don't care who won, I like my FireWire CF card reader.
- smackfu 16y agoRight up until you have nothing to plug it into.
- YooLi 16y agoHe can plug it into the new Thunderbolt plug with a simple adapter. Thunderbolt is already compatible with USB and Firewire.
- nitrogen 16y agoIt sounds like Thunderbolt is "compatible" with USB and Firewire in the same way ExpressCard and CardBus are -- by putting the host controller that would normally be on a PCI/PCIe card on the bus.