14 DAY TRIAL // While there are a number of cross platform standards designed for data transfer between different kinds of devices, there are only two that gained worldwide acceptance and are now used in almost all computers and a number of peripherals. One of these two standards is the USB and the other is the FireWire standard. Just like USB, FireWire is not a new addition to the computer world as it has been developed by engineers at Apple Computer more than 10 years ago. From the start, it was intended as a cross platform method of transferring data using high speeds. The technology was presented to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE for short) and in December 1995, the first official FireWire standard called IEEE 1394 was released, supporting data transferring speeds up to 400Mbps.
Nowadays, the original standard (IEEE 1394) has two new additions, complementary standards that basically increase the data transferring speeds: the IEEE 1394a and the IEEE 1394b. Under the latest FireWire standard (IEEE 1394b) devices support hot-swapping and data transferring speeds of up to 800Mbps. According to the 1394 Trade Association, cited by the site IT Business Net, "by the end of 2006 more than 510 million 1394-equipped devices (such as computers, hard drive, and televisions) will be available worldwide with FireWire as the transport mechanism for high-quality audio, video, data, and control. That's estimated to double over the next 24-36 months".
The FireWire standard gained its acceptance mainly because of its high data speeds and support for hot-swapping. As a bonus, many of the add-on cards found on the computer hardware market today that offer FireWire support can be used as networking devices, allowing a FireWire based network to be constructed between two computers (both must support the FireWire standard). The still not widely used standard IEEE 1394c specifies a way to employ an Ethernet PHY protocol over the 1394 environment. Because of its high data transferring speeds supported, the FireWire standard is employed in many external high-end storage solutions alongside the USB standard. There are already a number of external storage solutions based on hard disk drives produced by Seagate, Maxtor, Western Digital and LaCie that provide connectivity through FireWire and USB. Most of these external disks are usually used for data back up (the USB only approach) or for application and currently working data in conjunction with system back ups (the 1394 using ones) because of the high data transferring speeds supported.
Apart from hard disk drives that use FireWire as an external connectivity standard, there are a number of multimedia products, mostly audio mixers, pre-amps and speakers that use the very same standard in order to achieve high data transfer rates and easy connectivity. And the FireWire trend doesn't stop here, as an association of multimedia and computer hardware producers like Samsung, Mitsubishi, JVC, and Sun Micro are integrating the 1394 standard in all their electronic home entertainment products and services because of the strategy that defines the standard: "one cable, one remote" that greatly simplifies the connecting issues.