FireWire: over a billion ports served

Alright, so we've harshed a little bit on FireWire recently, but we've got to stop and give the venerable interconnect some love: the 1394 Trade Association says that there are now over a billion FireWire ports out there. That's quite an accomplishment, even if we're not so sure that the group's claim that "every 1394-equipped device sold now has 1 billion opportunities to connect" is the most accurate or useful way of measuring the success of the technology. Even still, growth is always a good thing, and with an estimated 15 percent expansion rate in existing markets and some new applications like in-car networking showing potential, it looks like FireWire is set to hold its own against USB and eSATA for a while longer.

[ryan @ Apr 9th 2008 9:07PM]

firewire pwnnnss its name also sounds cooler

[Nipponese @ Apr 9th 2008 11:43PM]

It pwns USB 2.0 in real world performance too.

[Yevon @ Apr 9th 2008 9:07PM]

Um, yay?

[jonathan @ Apr 9th 2008 9:13PM]

[# of firewire devices that exist] x [# of possible locations on the earth to connect to those devices] = 1 billion opportunities to connect

Sounds right to me.

[kyle f @ Apr 9th 2008 9:12PM]

USB guys: "bwahaha, that's what we sell everyday!"

[Syntax Error @ Apr 9th 2008 9:20PM]

The man speaks the truth.

[tyler @ Apr 9th 2008 10:43PM]

According to In-Stat, right now USB is at roughly 2 billion *devices* and that number is expected to reach 3 billion by 2010. USB ports on the other hand.. oh dear..

[ethana2 @ Apr 9th 2008 10:56PM]

1. Can you implement it without worrying about patents?
2. Can it scale frequencies limited only by the hardware?
3. Can it scale voltages limited only by the hardware?
4. Can it perform connection multiplexing?
5. Can it go wireless, losing only the ability to supply power?

--Can I, as an individual, use it, and only it, to run my entire house, building my own appliances, and sell the thing for three million dollars without lawyers showing up at my door?

USB is horrible. Firewire is horrible. Maybe some day people will see the light.

[gabe @ Apr 9th 2008 9:12PM]

never used firewire in my life - no lie :)

[Kris S. @ Apr 9th 2008 9:17PM]

Me neither.

[Aguiluz @ Apr 9th 2008 9:34PM]

I have a port on my old laptop with that symbol on it. I never even knew that was firewire!

[Meltz @ Apr 9th 2008 9:44PM]

eSATA FTW...although just for storage. I use (I guess I should say "used") firewire a lot for uploading video from my camcorder.

[BigD145 @ Apr 9th 2008 10:01PM]

Same here. Let's go into the back room and make USB babies.

[The Dude @ Apr 9th 2008 10:35PM]

I've only used FireWire once...and that was just to give it a shot with an external HDD. No devices I've encountered actually need FireWire; USB is always there.

[Greg @ Apr 9th 2008 10:49PM]

I use it for my external hard drive. It's a lot faster than usb for large data transfers.

[caleb @ Apr 10th 2008 12:31AM]

I had never used FireWire before the latest external drive I bought. I'm not quite sure what inspired me to do it, but I have to admit - it's much faster than any external USB drive I've used. Also, I haven't expanded yet, but I really like the fact that I can add another drive by just daisy chaining it off my current drive instead or running yet another cable to my PC.

[Seanross @ Apr 10th 2008 2:13AM]

I have 2 Firewire ports on my tower right now that are dusty, but almost all 7 USB ports are plugged with something, lol.

Not that I'm bias, just the way things happened...

[eric f. @ Apr 10th 2008 10:14AM]

I think the issue is that PCs often have the 4pin FW port, which, like mini usb, is not the most secure connection.

the beauty of firewire, besides the speed, is how tightly it connects to devices. that is why it is the ideal choice for us professional photographers to plug into our digital camera backs.

[Ben @ Apr 9th 2008 9:14PM]

Does Apple still get a $1 for every firewire port?

[ethana2 @ Apr 9th 2008 10:57PM]

Probably, but I frigging hope not. If /anyone/ gets money like that, screw it. Period.

[rv @ Apr 9th 2008 9:15PM]

Ive never had a firewire port. Ever.

[Eli @ Apr 9th 2008 9:16PM]

You've missed out on a great opPORTunity, then!

[Ignatius @ Apr 9th 2008 10:18PM]

For what, another unused port on your system? I haven't ever owned a device in the 12 years I've used computers that actually needed FireWire...

[the brain @ Apr 10th 2008 12:32PM]

Target mode on a mac... i use it on occasion. Other than that, pretty much useless.

[Tom @ Apr 9th 2008 9:20PM]

Yeah well, brilliant Firewire. All the pc's in our household had it for years, my gaming rig even had several of them thanks to Soundblaster hardware upgrades. Still I've yet to buy a single device which would connect to Firewire.
On the other hand, we've got more USB devices than finger and toes to count them on. So much for bragging rights, 139...what?

[ryan @ Apr 9th 2008 9:23PM]

It has higher real world download speeds so usually you find firewire ports on external hard drives or video cameras

[Iain @ Apr 9th 2008 9:54PM]

Actually, only Firewire 800 is faster than USB 2.0 but since Firewire 400 the more prevalent type, there is no advantage in terms of speed for most users.
On top of that, USB i the de facto standard - one type of connector at the PC end that has been widely embraced for years now, Firewire never had a chance.

For out-and-out speed, eSATA is at least a match for Firewire 800 and supports low-level drive features such as S.M.A.R.T. which Firewire does not, making it a more suitable connector for external drives.

That leaves one area and one area alone in which Firewire is king, which is camcorders.
But as we switch from more traditional magnetic tape media to HHD or solid state storage, even that will slowly die.


Put bluntly, for the vast majority of people, Firewire is a waste of a port.
Were it not for Apple, it probably would've died a long time ago.

[LaughingMan @ Apr 9th 2008 10:08PM]

Actually, it's a misconception that Firewire 400 is somehow slower than USB 2.0 (480). 480 mbps is a peak rate for USB.

In practice, USB 2.0 is slower than Firewire 400, and requires more CPU utilization.

I've been able to sustain ~50MB/sec for large transfers onto a firewire 400 drive.

USB is cheaper and more ubiquitous, but Firewire is faster.

[tanporakuda @ Apr 10th 2008 12:17AM]

Yeah, for external HDD not only is Firewire usually around 35% faster than USB2.0, but it uses only 13% the CPU power USB needs.

[thethirdmoose @ Apr 9th 2008 9:21PM]

i don't like it when my wire's on fire

[andres @ Apr 9th 2008 9:48PM]

thats what she said

[rv @ Apr 9th 2008 9:55PM]

andres: that doesn't make any sense, unless of course thats what HE said...

[Dave @ Apr 9th 2008 10:06PM]

if HE has a wire, thats kinda sad. I like to think of it more as an ATA rounded cable...

[BreakTheChains @ Apr 9th 2008 9:23PM]

Pretty sweet. I like having FireWire. It's always been fast and reliable for me so I'd hate to see it go.

[The Grand Master @ Apr 9th 2008 9:28PM]

Long live Firewire!

[Fyrewerx @ Apr 9th 2008 9:33PM]

I've had a firewire port on each of my 4 active PCs for years, and they're all still VIRGINs.

[Aguiluz @ Apr 9th 2008 9:36PM]

My firewire port has dust in it. Does that count as virgin?

(Seriously, I never poked a connector in it.)

[Abuzar @ Apr 9th 2008 10:05PM]

"I never poked a connector into it"


That's what HE said.

[Dave @ Apr 9th 2008 10:07PM]

any guy who ever said that never got laid, lol

[Abuzar @ Apr 9th 2008 10:10PM]

Well that's not true. He could have poked that connector into lots of different ports, but he didn't poke it into one particular one because that port has portal dustes.

[gabe @ Apr 9th 2008 9:36PM]

one this this article fails to mention are the number of active firewire users - i really think it in the single digits in terms of usage vs usb.

firewire is dying - and this is only propaganda IMO.

Ports mean nothing if they aren't being used.

[mcheddadi @ Apr 9th 2008 9:36PM]

Have it on my laptop and desktop tower. never used it.

[Dave @ Apr 9th 2008 10:10PM]

Yea I can't really think of a less used port, except maybe the PS/2 Mouse or keyboard port that still comes with every PC.

[ethana2 @ Apr 9th 2008 10:59PM]

Protocols mean little to nothing to me if they can't be used free of royalties. Unless I'm mistaken, firewire falls into that category.

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Apr 10th 2008 4:46AM]

It is obviously marketing. Though I can hardly imaging why they would try to do it.

As much as FireWire is better than USB, latter has huge advantage over former: price. And we all know that price rules PC market.

Also, there is a misconception about speeds. Modern USB 2.0 devices on average are faster that FireWire 400 devices. Reasons is simple: USB is more widespread and more people are looking into how to improve it. And it did improve in recent yeas greatly, while FireWire still refused to address its main issue: price...

Pure technically FireWire as bus-master capable, asynchronous interconnect is superior to primitive USB. But do not forget that Intel CPUs are also started as primitive 4 bit calculators. "Price" is keyword to win in PC market.

[Wwhat @ Apr 10th 2008 1:19AM]

You know you can plug in a firewire cable between that laptop and desktop and voila you've got a network!
Doesn't need anything but a standard cable.
Why waste ports.

[mcheddadi @ Apr 10th 2008 1:20AM]

because I have wifi?

[Casper42 @ Apr 9th 2008 9:43PM]

How many of those 1 million ports are attacked to iMACs and eMACs in public schools all over the USA?

And I would venture to sat that 95% of those machines have never once seen a FireWire device plugged into them.


There are some cases where FireWire makes alot of sense, but this press release is pure nonsense.

[Casper42 @ Apr 9th 2008 9:44PM]

Thats what I get for posting on cold meds.
attacked = attached
venture to sat = venture to say

[Yevon @ Apr 9th 2008 9:46PM]

This is what you get for typing under the influence...