FireWire update promises 3.2Gbit/sec

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 18 December 2007 09:45

Your IT - Home IT

A new electrical specification for FireWire developed by the 1394 Trade Association will quadruple the interface's maximum speed to 3.2Gbit/sec.

The new S3200 specification uses the same cables and connectors as FireWire 800. The existing arbitration, data and service protocols also remain unchanged, so once S3200 is ratified (probably in early February), vendors should be able to quickly add it to existing and new designs.

That said, the new specification also provides new options that will allow cable lengths of 100m or more, even for high-speed use.

When used with hard drives, "S3200 also makes FireWire so fast that users will see no advantage from eSATA," said 1394 Trade Association officials, pointing out that a FireWire connected drive does not require a separate power feed, and that many more FireWire devices can be connected to a single port compared with eSATA. FireWire also provides more power than USB, providing greater flexibility as well as compatibility with a wider range of hard drives.

The Association also expects S3200 will enhance FireWire's position in consumer electronics, noting that "FireWire is the only separable interface today that can record HD programs in their full digital quality while also meeting the content protection requirements of copyright holders."

FireWire S3200 is fast enough to transfer uncompressed HD video over long distances at lower cost than HDMI, officials claimed. Work is well advanced towards allowing FireWire signals to flow over TV coaxial cables simultaneously with ordinary program content.

"The S3200 standard will sustain the position of IEEE 1394 as the absolute performance leader in multi-purpose I/O ports for consumer applications in computer and CE devices," said James Snider, executive director, 1394 Trade Association. "There is a very clear migration path from 800Mbit/sec to 3.2Gbit/sec, with no need for modifications to the standard and no requirement for new cables or connectors."

Although USB 3.0 will offer transfer speeds of 4.8Gbit/sec, it is likely to arrive a year or two after the first S3200 devices. Furthermore, the efficiency of the 1394 protocols mean that more than 97 percent of the available bandwidth can be used to carry data. Unlike S3200, USB 3.0 will get its speed by moving to hybrid copper/optical fibre cables.

S3200 is backed by chipmakers LSI Corporaation, Oxford Semiconductor, Symwave and Texas Instruments.