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Recent Macs Have Built-in USB 2.0

Posted by pudge on from the taking-your-word-for-it dept.

RalphBNumbers writes "According to a forum thread at CreateMac, a Korean Mac community, the newer MDD 1.25 and 1.42 GHz dual G4s actually use a NEC PD720101 USB 2.0 controller for their built-in USB. Apple's drivers only support USB 1.x, but you can apparently enable USB 2.0 functionality by using the drivers for a USB 2.0 card from Orange Micro that uses the same NEC controller. YMMV." Is there a translation of any of this, somewhere?

4 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Translation by xWeston · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here is a link that works for translation..

    Babelfish Korean->English Translation of article

    Rejoice Rejoice! One time where you have to CTFP (Check the F Preview). WooHoo!

  2. Re:Who cares? by brandonlp · · Score: 5, Informative
    It's without any of the fancy user-apps that Apple includes that make life a whole lot easier.

    Huh? Ever heard of Microsoft Windows XP? What exactly will I be missing in a Windows XP box that I would get in Apple?

    What will you be missing in XP that you get with a mac? iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, iPhoto... iLife, if you wanna call it that. Four included apps that allow you to do some pretty nifty things with audio, video, and photos. XP ships with Windows Movie Maker and Windows Media Player which would cover video and audio... but they're not designed to work well together, so they don't, and that still leaves out photo and good DVD creation software.

  3. Not true by djupedal · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...the 2.0 chip isn't wired. Apple, like other OEM'simply bought boards with dual capability, since 1.0 only boards are no longer available in the quantities that Apple needs at this time. It takes another step to enable 2.0 circuitry, and that step has not been taken by Apple at this time.

    The 2.0 drivers are already in the OS, so anyone that thinks they can buy a new Mac, add drivers, and have 2.0 is a bit of a chump.

  4. 1394b is a lot more than "FireWire 800" by daveschroeder · · Score: 4, Informative
    IEEE-1394b can support speeds of 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, and 3200 Mbps, and can support the following media (not all speeds supported on all media):
    • 9-pin twisted pair copper (standard for FireWire 800)

    • Standard CAT-5
      Step-index plastic fiber
      Hard polymer-clad plastic fiber
      Glass fiber
    Apple also has an interesting and informative FireWire 800/IEEE-1394b tech brief

    Also, to the person who responded saying FireWire 800 isn't twice as fast as USB 2 because USB 2 operates at 480 Mbps: you should look at the real life performance of USB - both 1 and 2. It's far short of the theoretical maximum; in the case of USB 2, often well under 400 Mbps. So FireWire 800 is more than twice as fast. Even 400 Mbps FireWire is often faster than USB 2.

    However, it's really beside the point if FireWire 800 is faster than USB 2 if the device you wish to connect only has a USB 2 interface. FireWire may be the superior interface and technology for many high-speed tasks, but many consumer devices feature USB 2. It certainly can't hurt to be able to connect to the widest variety of devices possible. FireWire - not only because of speed, but because of features and the flexibility of the standard - will continue to be chosen for high end audio, video, specialty storage and networking, smart home interconnectivity, etc. Look at plasma HDTVs and DVD-A players: you won't see USB 2 on those. But it would be nice for Mac users to pick up a third-party USB 2 scanner, DVD recorder, camera, etc., and be able to take full advantage of the peripheral's connectivity (many of these devices may even have FireWire versions, or versions with both USB 2 and FireWire. But the item in stock and on the shelf at Best Buy always seems to be the USB 2-only version...that's what it really comes down to for some).