FireWire was developed by Apple, Sony, Panasonic, and
other companies in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It is also known as iLink by
Sony and Lynx by Texas Instruments. The IEEE maintains the standard as IEEE
1394. Apple developed FireWire as a connection for digital video and audio
equipment. It was popular for connecting digital video cameras to data storage
devices like digital video recorders.
Unlike USB, FireWire doesn't
require a computer as a controller; FireWire can connect two devices without a
computer in the mix. It essentially operated as a peer-to-peer network. It was
legally required on HD cable boxes upon request.
Throughout its history,
FireWire tended to have speeds significantly higher than that of USB at the
time. For example, when USB operated at 12 Mbps, FireWire operated at about 400
Mbps. When USB 2.0 operated at 480 Mbps, FireWire operated at 800 Mbps. FireWire
800 could use Cat-5 Ethernet cables, but plans to mix FireWire, and EtherNet were
never realized.
FireWire has not kept up with USB with USB 3. Plans to
operate FireWire over fiber optic cable and to increase the speeds up to 6.4 Gbps
have not materialized.
