Parallel buses utilize a number of different physical connections, and as such are usually more costly and typically heavier. FireWire is a serial bus, meaning that information is transferred one bit at a time.

IEEE 1394 is a serial bus architecture for high-speed data transfer. Its development was initiated by Apple in 1986, and developed by the IEEE P1394 Working Group, largely driven by contributions from Sony (102 patents), Apple (58 patents), and Panasonic (46 patents), in addition to contributions made by engineers from Philips, LG Electronics, Toshiba, Hitachi, Canon, INMOS/SGS Thomson (now STMicroelectronics), and Texas Instruments. Ī PCI expansion card that contains four FireWire 400 connectors.įireWire is Apple's name for the IEEE 1394 High Speed Serial Bus. USB requires a host controller whereas IEEE 1394 is cooperatively managed by the connected devices. USB was developed subsequently and gained much greater market share. FireWire is also available in Cat 5 and optical fiber versions. Power and data is carried over this cable, allowing devices with moderate power requirements to operate without a separate power supply. The copper cable used in its most common implementation can be up to 4.5 metres (15 ft) long. It is also known by the brand names i.LINK (Sony), and Lynx ( Texas Instruments). It was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Apple in cooperation with a number of companies, primarily Sony and Panasonic. IEEE 1394 is an interface standard for a serial bus for high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer. Thunderbolt (and USB 3.0 for consumer use) For other uses, see Firewire (disambiguation).Īpple (1394a/b), IEEE P1394 Working Group, Sony, Panasonic, etc.

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