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FireWire Spec to Boost Data Speeds to 3.2 Gbps

Posted by Zonk on from the lots-of-mp3s-really-fast dept.

Stony Stevenson writes "A new set of data transfer specs may reach new Firewire speed records. The new transfer version is called S3200 and builds on the earlier specification approved by the IEEE.' The technology will be able to use existing FireWire 800 cables and connectors while delivering a major boost in performance. The new spec also will let users interconnect various home-networking appliances via coax cable, linking HDTVs with set-top boxes, TVs, and computers in various rooms around a home or office. The new release enables the transmission of FireWire data over distances of more than 100 meters. Home entertainment centers are likely to be an early application.'"

8 of 223 comments (clear)

  1. I think Apple.... by alta · · Score: 3, Insightful

    will be the earliest application. Remember when this was like e1394, or if you're sony i.Link. Those names never got any momentum, and they didn't push it. Heck, sony isn't too good at pushing standards anyway. Beta? Mini Disk? Memory Stick? Blueray has a chance.

    Anyway, when apple calls it firewire2, then it'll get adopted.

    --
    Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
    1. Re:I think Apple.... by DECS · · Score: 2, Insightful

      All the hating on Sony forgets that the company co-invented the CD format (heard of that?) with Philips, and the two later got behind DVD after their own video format based on the CD was hijacked by Toshiba. That puts Sony behind every successful consumer format of the last decade, not just the turkeys it has failed with.

      Betamax has also been the basis for ED Beta, the prosumer format nearly every TV crew uses and has used over the last two decades. Trying to create a black and while picture by dialing up the contrast to ridiculous levels leaves you unable to see the big picture.

      Further, it is silly to think that Blu-ray is going to lose out to HD-DVD given that it has one manufacturer (Toshiba), one studio (Paramount), and one tenth the installed base of BR. Will Vista turn the tide? Tee hee. Of course, I think there is more potential in content outside of HD in the near term, and don't see Sony contributing toward that potential or benefiting from it.

      Why Low Def is the New HD
      The video industry is heavily promoting HDTV as the biggest new thing since color. While it's uncontroversial that HDTV can deliver an exceptional picture for users of the latest large flat screen displays, sometimes a high pitched marketing message can drown out more interesting realities. In 2008, it appears that low definition video will actually have a bigger impact on consumers; Apple's strategies in video take that potential into consideration. Here's why Low Def is big and getting bigger--and why it's bigger than HD.

    2. Re:I think Apple.... by DECS · · Score: 1, Insightful

      You're right, HD-DVD has two large exclusive studios: Paramount and Universal (athough there are titles on both sides of the divide that jumped ship, from Spielberg's Paramount flicks to some BR titles that can be found on HD-DVD). Studios who make multiple format HD discs don't play a role in affecting the outcome. There are no makers building HD-DVD players apart from Toshiba and some efforts Toshiba has made to get Chinese companies to duplicate it.

      FYI: megalomania is an obsession with power and control, not a secure assurance of a given outlook.

      There really isn't a controversy however. The market has decided. That's why it took $100,000,000 to get Paramount to hold up its BR releases for two years. For things to balance out, but it would take a massively powerful shift of interest, and right now there isn't any mass of interest in HD discs in either format. They're projecting total sales of 1 million standalone players by the end of the year (not counting the 7 million PS3s sold) as the total installed base of HD players. That's absolutely nothing overall. It would be easier and more cost effective to roll out DVD-9 with HD content in H.264 at this point and beat both formats, if it were in anyone's financial interest to do so.

      From that standpoint, the massive number of PS3s out there that will be sold, particularly in the next 6 months, do matter and will blow away any blip of HD-DVD, making it silly for studios to continue pressing HD-DVD movies. HD-DVD will become a vestigial addition to DVD just like DIVX and then go away. The players will become enhanced upscaling DVD players. This is so obvious that its painful to hear delusional stuff from HD-DVD buyers who insist that the format has legs because Microsoft promises cheap Chinese players. Microsoft promises a lot of things.

      Microsoft said it would ship a video iPod platform and take over the market in 2004. I was late by half a year or so, and then Media2Go fizzled.

      Microsoft planned to sell a million Zunes by June. That's really not very many, but it's still selling them at fire sale prices six months later. Apple sold 40 million in that time.

      Microsoft is saying that Windows 7 in 2011-2012 (?) will improve upon the iPhone of 2007. Wow, I'd hope so.

      Why Low Def is the New HD

  2. Re:stupid tags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    it's !wireless or for the programming challenged, 'not' wireless. but, yea, that can be applied to a great many topics. not sure how usefule the !x tag is for anything.

  3. Re:I would just like a single standard... by TheSkyIsPurple · · Score: 2, Insightful

    >For an OEM to add a firewire port costs about $1.50 more than a USB port. Not exactly a huge difference.

    Yeah, but when you spread that across a million machines, you're talking real money.

  4. Re:cheapness by vux984 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Firewire 400 cards are like $10. which is pretty much what a USB2 card costs although you don't need a USB2 card since every PC has one built-in now, so you can call it $0.

    When I said a penny saved is a penny earned I was serious.

    Firewire maybe less than a dollar more expensive per port than USB, but it adds up. And the bean counters designing hardware care about the pennies.

    Not too mention we couldn't cut over to pure firewire even if wanted to. Firewire versions of low bandwidth devices like keyboards, mice, etc simply don't exist...

  5. Why not HDMI? by __aanjtz122 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This may sound like a stupid question, but why would we see the implementation of the new Firewire spec in HDTVs when we already have HDMI using equivalent or greater bandwidth? Would it not be just as likely to see HDMI ports appearing in PCs for connections to HDTV and AV equipment? Thanks

  6. Re:I would just like a single standard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I sure wish USB could simply be upgraded to these higher speeds

    I wish lots of parts of the USB spec weren't completely braindead. As you may know, USB picks a speed by which data line (D+ or D-) you tie to 3.3V with a 1.5K resistor. Then when they wanted to add a third speed, they added another hack to allow that. It's kind of a mess.

    As a rule, I don't trust specs who can't even get their units right. USB declares that devices must state their max power usage in milliamps. It's been that way since USB 1.0, and they've never fixed it.

    USB is good at some things, and Firewire is good at some things, but all too often seems like the USB spec was written by high school kids. I've never built Firewire hardware, so I can't say whether it's any better, but I have trouble believing it could be any worse.