FireWire Has Shipped 2 Billion Ports Globally

I would bet that most of us are already familiar with the FireWire port. These ports are common on many devices today with both PC and Mac users getting the ports and add in cards available for rigs that lack the port. FireWire is used for all sorts of things from faster data transfers from external storage than USB 2.0 to sending video from cameras directly to the computer.

For a long time FireWire was the fastest port on a PC, but USB 3.0 now has that honor. The 1394 Trade Association has announced that it has now shipped two billion FireWire ports all around the globe. The ports are used in storage, set top boxes and more according to the association.

Despite the faster USB 3.0, port on the market the 1394 Trade Association still expects the standard to grow in 2011. Once integrated USB 3.0 controllers are inside most mainboards on the market I have to think that the FireWire port will start to fade away.

"The two billion ports represents a significant new milestone for 1394," said Max Bassler, chairman, 1394 Trade Association. "Just as impressive is the innovative and creative application of FireWire in new generations of advanced industrial automation, vision systems, and production equipment. FireWire will continue its steady, stable growth during 2011, as we migrate to the first products operating at 1.6 Gigabit/second bandwidth — and as 1394 proves itself superior to competitive interfaces in a variety of sectors." Bassler added that there is now a new generation of set top boxes with FireWire, providing data transfer speeds of 800 Megabit/second.