What is Firewire for?

[jasmine@hutmail.com]

I have been looking to buy a USB 2.0 card, and was looking online to
see what's available. I noticed one card that has both USB and
FIREWIRE. What is the purpose of Firewire? Or maybe I should ask
what it's used for.

I also noticed some ads saying that it can use up to 127 USB devices.
I see no reason to ever need that many, but lets say I wanted 20
devices. The computer has 2 ports and lets say I plug a 4 port hub
into each, that's still only 8 usable ports. How could someone get
more? Do they just keep adding hubs into hubs, or what?

Thanks

 

[Jeff Richards]

Firewire (or IEE 1394) is another form of high speed serial connection.
It's commonly used for video data, but it could be anything, including
connecting an external disk drive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewire

Multiple USB devices are connected by cascading hubs, as you guessed.
Arranging the topology correctly is important in getting maximum
performance, as is the arrangement for powering each hub and each device,
but it's certainly possible to have a very large number of devices.

Of course, if you really were contemplating that many USB devices you would
start with a card that has as many USB controllers (ports) as possible..
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
<jasmine@hutmail.com> wrote in message
news:h1sbj3ld7kcms1mdft8sgdlsuut4rpmpu7@4ax.com...
>I have been looking to buy a USB 2.0 card, and was looking online to
> see what's available. I noticed one card that has both USB and
> FIREWIRE. What is the purpose of Firewire? Or maybe I should ask
> what it's used for.
>
> I also noticed some ads saying that it can use up to 127 USB devices.
> I see no reason to ever need that many, but lets say I wanted 20
> devices. The computer has 2 ports and lets say I plug a 4 port hub
> into each, that's still only 8 usable ports. How could someone get
> more? Do they just keep adding hubs into hubs, or what?
>
> Thanks

 

[Franc Zabkar]

On Sat, 10 Nov 2007 12:00:56 -0600, jasmine@hutmail.com put finger to
keyboard and composed:

>I have been looking to buy a USB 2.0 card, and was looking online to
>see what's available. I noticed one card that has both USB and
>FIREWIRE. What is the purpose of Firewire? Or maybe I should ask
>what it's used for.

If you have a camcorder, check whether it has a DV port. That's
Firewire by another name.

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

 

[Lil' Dave]

What firewire is, is what sold me on it. Unlike USB, most of the code for
communication is written and available for use prior to the OS utilizing it.
Less overhead. Good for local PC, not using alot of devices on its bus.
Use it for the digital camera/camcorder and external hard drives connected
alternatively.
Some also like for local comm line between PC and laptop in XP.

USB multi-device beyond a tens range is not realistic. If available for irq
use, USB and Firewire can be both be utilized.
--
Dave
Profound is we're here due to a chance arrangement
of chemicals in the ocean billions of years ago.
More profound is we made it to the top of the food
chain per our reasoning abilities.
Most profound is the denial of why we may
be on the way out.
<jasmine@hutmail.com> wrote in message
news:h1sbj3ld7kcms1mdft8sgdlsuut4rpmpu7@4ax.com...
>I have been looking to buy a USB 2.0 card, and was looking online to
> see what's available. I noticed one card that has both USB and
> FIREWIRE. What is the purpose of Firewire? Or maybe I should ask
> what it's used for.
>
> I also noticed some ads saying that it can use up to 127 USB devices.
> I see no reason to ever need that many, but lets say I wanted 20
> devices. The computer has 2 ports and lets say I plug a 4 port hub
> into each, that's still only 8 usable ports. How could someone get
> more? Do they just keep adding hubs into hubs, or what?
>
> Thanks