FireWire is a method of transferring information between digital devices, especially audio and video equipment. Also known as IEEE 1394, FireWire is fast -- the latest version achieves speeds up to 800 Mbps. At some time in the future, that number is expected to jump to an unbelievable 3.2 Gbps when manufacturers overhaul the current FireWire cables.
Pasow FireWire 1394b 800 IEEE 9 Pin to 9 Pin Male to Male Cable for Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, iMac PC,Digital Cameras, SLR (9 pin to 9 pin) 4.7 out of 5 stars 358 $10.99 $ 10. Use FireWire devices with Mac. You can use FireWire (sometimes called IEEE 1394 or i.LINK) to connect external devices, such as a hard drive or a digital video camera, without needing to restart your computer.A FireWire port provides power, so the connected device usually doesn’t need its own power cord. Many Mac computers have one or more FireWire 400 ports that transfer data at up to 400. 28x30 FireWire/USB 24-bit/192kHz Audio Interface with 8-channels of XLR/TRS Analog Inputs with Microphone Preamps, AES/EBU, S/PDIF, ADAT, S/MUX, and Built-in DSP Mixing and Effects - Mac/PC $ 995.00 Or $42 /month § for 24 months i. Firewire is most often used to connect digital camcorders, external hard drives, and other devices that can benefit from the high transfer rates (up to 480 Mbps) supported by the Firewire connection. The iSight camera used for chatting on the Mac connects using a Firewire cable. FireWire 800 is available on the non-Retina MacBook Pro, Mac mini and Mac Pro. It was originally developed by Apple and released in 1999,as FireWire 400, when the very first PowerMac G3 was launched. Since then, it’s been updated to FireWire 800.
You can connect up to 63 devices to a FireWire bus. Windows operating systems (98 and later) and Mac OS (8.6 and later) both support it.
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Firewire Cable For Mac
Let's say you have your digital camcorder connected to your home computer. When your computer powers up, it queries all of the devices connected to the bus and assigns each one an address, a process called enumeration. FireWire is plug-and-play, so if you connect a new FireWire device to your computer, the operating system auto-detects it and asks for the driver disc. If you've already installed the device, the computer activates it and starts talking to it. FireWire devices are hot pluggable, which means they can be connected and disconnected at any time, even with the power on.
2012 Mac Mini Firewire
Now let's take a look at FireWire's specifications.