“Since Apple announced the new MacBook last week sans FireWire, there’s been a backlash from the Apple community about the omission,” Jason D. O’Grady blogs for ZDNet.
“Users love the high-speed data protocol for things like Target Disk Mode (TDM), transferring clips from digital video cameras and for connecting to external hard drives. Mac techs love FireWire because TDM is one of the best ways to diagnose a damaged hard drive (without having to physically remove it from the computer). In fact, over 60 percent of respondents to my recent poll said that they can’t live without FireWire,” O’Grady reports. “Apple, in its infinite wisdom, decided that MacBooks don’t need FireWire.”
O’Grady reports, “In a piece written before the new MacBooks were announced some were speculating that Apple could support FireWire over Ethernet if the FireWire port was indeed dropped from the new MacBook. Unfortunately it has come to light that it’s currently impossible to run FireWire over Ethernet.”
“There is hope though,” O’Grady reports. “IEEE 1394c is an extension to the FireWire standard (IEEE 1394/a/b) that would provide the ability for FireWire to run at 800Mbps over category 5 unshielded twisted pair cables. It’s still in development and just passed the first ballot.”
“Once the 1394c standard passes, Apple would have to implement it either onboard or via an adapter. It’s conceivable that… Apple could implement FireWire over Ethernet by the time Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6) is released,” O’Grady reports.
More in the full article here.
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