What is the difference between a Firewire port and USB port?

[WiseMagic]

What is the difference between a Firewire port and USB port?

[yg1968]

Firewire is often used for video transfer (for example from a digital camcorder to a computer or from a digital camcorder to another digital camcorder) whereas USB 1.0 is usually used for printers, mouses, webcams, etc. Firewire transfer is much faster than USB 1.0. Incidentally, Firewire is sometimes called i-link (by Sony), ieee 1394, DV in or DV out.

USB 2.0 is a bit faster than firewire but it is likely that DV video will continue to use a firewire port in the future. Both USB 2.0 and firewire can be used for external devices such as external DVD burners and external hard disks.

Firewire 2 is supposed to be much faster than USB 2.0 but it has yet to come out.

[Gazorgan]

USB 1.0 has been around since the original Pentium (100 Mhz or so) came out. However, virtually no devices were available until fairly recently.

USB 2.0 is now out, yet many new systems and motherboards still have USB 1.x chipsets, so we are in a state of transistion, again. USB 2.x and 1.x devices can co-exist, so legacy devices aren't an issue (speed may be).

Firewire has been around about as long as USB. It is 33 times faster than USB 1.x, and supports a number of featers that USB 1.x doesn't. I believe all the new MAC's come with a Firewire port, so manufactureres have reasons to make devices. Almost all of the new DV cams are firewire, so again, another reason for manufacturers to work with firewire.

Now some manufacturers have gotten smart, and make deives that work on USB and Firewire. External drives are a prime example.

While USB 2.0 is technical faster than firewire, you will find that in the real world firewire is faster. In my experience, USB never comes close to the speed limit it can do. This isn't a device limitation, I have compared a harddrive in a USB enclosure versus on the IDE bus. USB is significantly slower, and never approaches the speed limit.

You can get a USB/Firewire card pretty cheap, and that takes care compatability issues in one shot

[130T|_|L15/\/\]

USB 1.1 12 Mbps.
USB 2.0 480 Mbps.
FireWire 400 Mbps (IEEE 1394 FireWire spec).

USB 2.0 is not always faster than FireWire and vice versa.

Read the February 25, 2003 PC Magazine. There is an article about FireWire vs. USB.

PC Mag says that FireWire "has a quality edge with streaming audio and video."

Right now you can not use USB without a computer. Example you can not transfer video from your digital camcorder to a television with USB.

FireWire can work without a computer.

USB is cheaper to make compared to FireWire.

With the IEEE 1394b FireWire spec, it will be 800 Mbps. Some Apple computers have this, it is called FireWire 800.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Tech.explanation of 1394b:http://standards.ieee.org/announcements/1394bapp.html

[Al-eye]

Do all new PC have firewall? If so where is it located?

[ImaWeTodd]

Do all new PC have firewall? If so where is it located?

I keep mine in a lead box so the risk of fire is reduced.

If your talking about fireWIRE, then:

1) No
2) If it's not there, it's not anywhere.


Sorry, but I just couldn't keep that in. I would try to be more helpful if you want to know how to make sure a pc you buy has a firewire, or if your manual is unclear. This is after all the newbie forum.

Where a firewall is, is a much more complex topic.

[Conquest10]

a lot of new pcs are starting to have firewire built in.