High Performance Serial Bus

bus, standard (Or "IEEE 1394", "FireWire", "I-Link") A

1995 Macintosh/IBM PC serial bus interface standard

offering high-speed communications and isochronous

real-time data services.

1394 can transfer data between a computer and its

peripherals at 100, 200, or 400 Mbps, with a planed

increase to 2 Gbps. Cable length is limited to 4.5 m but up

to 16 cables can be daisy-chained yielding a total length of

72 m.

It can daisy-chain together up to 63 peripherals in a

tree-like structure (as opposed to SCSI's linear structure).

It allows peer-to-peer device communication, such as

communication between a scanner and a printer, to take

place without using system memory or the CPU. It is

designed to support plug-and-play and hot swapping. Its

six-wire cable is not only more convenient than SCSI cables

but can supply up to 60 watts of power, allowing

low-consumption devices to operate without a separate power

cord.

Some expensive camcorders have included this bus since Autumn

1995. It is expected to be used to carry SCSI, with

possible application to home automation using repeaters.

See also Universal Serial Bus, FC-AL.

(2000-09-03)