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The 1394 Trade Association announced a new standard of firewire with speed quadruples current spec of 800Mbit/s to 3.2Gbit/s . It wouldn’t be named alphabetic order like they have for 1394a, 1394b to 1394c. The new spec known as S3200 preserves all the advantages from existing firewire 800 or 1394b including the peer-to-peer protocol, bus-powered capability even with works the same cable and connector. One major different is major performance boost with S3200.
The 1394 Trade Association spokesman Richard Davis told InformationWeek that the S3200 will first find it ways to storage device then consumer goods such as HDTV set top box or Hi-Def media player. On the other hands, another major peripheral interface leaded by Intel and Promoters Group members Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments, NEC and NXP Semiconductors are coming out with USB 3.0 first quarter next year.
The next generation on the ubiquitous Universal Serial Bus technology is even faster with the fiber optic cable. The 3rd Generation will have 10 times transfer rate, make it 4.8Gbit/s faster than USB 2.0. It will maintain the same Master – Slave protocol, backward compatibility to USB 1.1. There were no mention of similar feature on IEEE side but we can only assure it capability since the architecture to physical cable and connector remain compatible. Despite the spec difference in slower speed, the new FireWire release will likely be compared to USB 3.0 due to better throughput in Peer-to-Peer protocol. Either one will compliment to the existing 3.0 Gbit/s ESATA/SATA II.
FireWire Spec To Boost Data Speeds To 3.2 Gbps
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Fiber Optic cables? how’s that gonna work? the wires must be pretty straight without any curves, not to mention that everything with a fiber optic usb connector will be a bit more expensive
Good point,
The data that travels though glass could get lost if it is bend with light blockage. But the Fiber optic cable is rather flexible and it should worked fine as long as the glass kept taut. The 3.0 USB cable may not has the tolerance to get underneath heavy furniture or endurance in tight space. Time will tell.
S3200 will hit 3.2 Gigabits Per Second comparable to USB 3.0, which will use a combination of copper wire and fibre optic to provide transfer rates of 4.8 gigabits a second, 10 times faster than the current USB 2.0 standard.
Great!
First, USB 3.0 only incorporates “fiber” for technology that is FASTER than 4.8Gbs. The “normal” 4.8Gbs transfer rate in done only with copper.
As for fiber, here are the facts: it is very flexable, there is no need to keep it “taut”, and it does not need to be in a straight line, i.e. can be coiled to your hearts content!!! It can be damaged by being smashed, crushed or cut.
Actually, will they even use glass fiber to do this? I would think that a plastic fiber would work just as well, and be cheaper than the glass. It is also interesting to note that you don’t see too many pc’s/laptops coming out with IEEE as an option anymore, but these same systems end up with 3 USB ports.