Firewire Connection
Firewire Cable Types
Types Of Firewire Connections

The different types of FireWire® adapters are cards, hubs, pen drive-style adapters, and cables. These different adapters can be used to convert between FireWire® 400 and 800 and universal serial bus (USB) connections. Some users may prefer to classify the adapters by the connection types they work with rather than the specific method of adaptation. Most hubs and cards work with the majority of connections, but pen drive-style adapters and cables specifically convert from one connection to another. FireWire® is a form of high speed data transfer, with FireWire® 800 offering an 800 megabytes per second transfer rate.

FireWire devices implement the ISO/IEC 13213 'configuration ROM' model for device configuration and identification, to provide plug-and-play capability. All FireWire devices are identified by an IEEE EUI-64 unique identifier in addition to well-known codes indicating the type of device and the protocols it supports. FireWire, one of the first systems for digital video, crossed over from the computer industry. Here are some details on this type of digital video connection: FireWire (also called IEEE 1394 or i.LINK) was originally developed by Apple Computer for connecting peripheral devices to Macintosh computers.

Cables are the simplest type of FireWire® adapters. One end of the cable has one type of connection and the other end has another type of connection. This means these adapters are limited to working with two different types of connection, for example FireWire® 800 and 400, and can be used either way around: from 400 to 800 or 800 to 400. The original wire which comes with the device is rendered useless if there isn’t a matching port on the user’s computer and he or she uses a cable adapter.

Pen drive-style FireWire® adapters work in a similar way to cable adapters, but they have one female input side and one male output side. This means that they can only be used to change one specific type of connection into another type of connection. For example, a pen drive adapter might have a FireWire® 400 input and a USB output. It can only connect to the USB slot on the user’s computer, and therefore can’t be used to convert a USB connection to FireWire® 400. Users need to use the original wire that came with the device to make use of this type of adapter.

Cards and hubs are two more types of FireWire® adapters. Hubs feature multiple ports for input and one or more output ports to connect to the user’s computer. Some hubs feature multiple ports for the same type of input, allowing the user to connect several devices to one port on his or her computer. Cards attach to the motherboard or network card slot on the user’s computer and feature multiple input ports. These solutions offer the user the widest range of connectivity.

FireWire cable uses a specialized copper cable which can be up to 15 feet long in most common implementations. It moves data at 400 Mbps in its basic form. The newest IEEE-1394b advancement, FireWire 800, moves data at twice that speed. FireWire cables are incredibly versatile when it comes to supporting multiple connector types. Aug 11, 2019 Types Of Firewire Ports. IEEE 1394 is an interface standard for a serial bus for high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer.

The maximum connection speed when using FireWire® adapters is the same as the slowest device. FireWire® 400 provides a 400 megabyte per second transfer rate, and if connected to an 800 port with the use of an adapter, still works at the same the maximum speed. The reason for this is that the data doesn’t go to the faster connection quickly enough to be transferred at higher speeds. Likewise, if a faster connection is changed into a slower one, the information comes in quickly, but can’t be relayed to the computer as quickly by the slower connection.

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A port is a physical docking point using which an external device can be connected to the computer. It can also be programmatic docking point through which information flows from a program to the computer or over the Internet.

Characteristics of Ports

A port has the following characteristics −

External devices are connected to a computer using cables and ports.
Ports are slots on the motherboard into which a cable of external device is plugged in.
Examples of external devices attached via ports are the mouse, keyboard, monitor, microphone, speakers, etc.

Let us now discuss a few important types of ports −

Serial Port

Used for external modems and older computer mouse
Two versions: 9 pin, 25 pin model
Data travels at 115 kilobits per second

Parallel Port

Used for scanners and printers
Also called printer port
25 pin model
IEEE 1284-compliant Centronics port

PS/2 Port

Used for old computer keyboard and mouse
Also called mouse port
Most of the old computers provide two PS/2 port, each for the mouse and keyboard
IEEE 1284-compliant Centronics port

Universal Serial Bus (or USB) Port

It can connect all kinds of external USB devices such as external hard disk, printer, scanner, mouse, keyboard, etc.
It was introduced in 1997.
Most of the computers provide two USB ports as minimum.
Data travels at 12 megabits per seconds.
USB compliant devices can get power from a USB port.

VGA Port

Connects monitor to a computer's video card.
It has 15 holes.
Similar to the serial port connector. However, serial port connector has pins, VGA port has holes.

Power Connector

Three-pronged plug.
Connects to the computer's power cable that plugs into a power bar or wall socket.

Firewire Port

Transfers large amount of data at very fast speed.
Connects camcorders and video equipment to the computer.
Data travels at 400 to 800 megabits per seconds.
Invented by Apple.
It has three variants: 4-Pin FireWire 400 connector, 6-Pin FireWire 400 connector, and 9-Pin FireWire 800 connector.

Modem Port

Connects a PC's modem to the telephone network.

Ethernet Port

Connects to a network and high speed Internet.
Connects the network cable to a computer.
This port resides on an Ethernet Card.
Data travels at 10 megabits to 1000 megabits per seconds depending upon the network bandwidth.

Game Port

Connect a joystick to a PC
Now replaced by USB

Firewire Connection

Digital Video Interface, DVI port

Connects Flat panel LCD monitor to the computer's high-end video graphic cards.
Very popular among video card manufacturers.

Firewire Cable Types

Sockets

Types Of Firewire Connections

Sockets connect the microphone and speakers to the sound card of the computer.