Symwave, Inc., a privately-held supplier of high-performance analog/mixed signal semiconductor solutions for personal computer, consumer and mobile devices, announced today that it is demonstrating the world’s first IEEE 1394b S1600 Physical Layer (PHY) solution. The new device is backwards compatible with all prior generations of FireWire/1394, and is offered at an equivalent price to today’s 800Mbps solutions with twice the speed.
Symwave’s “FirePHY-1600” PHY solution is the latest product based on Symwave’s state-of-the-art, high speed SERDES technology, a critical core competency required for most next-generation connectivity standards, including the proposed USB3.0 standard. The FirePHY-1600 runs at 2GHz clock speed and is designed to comply with the IEEE 1394b S1600 standard enabling data transfer rates up to 1.6Gbps, nearly four times faster than the highest speed USB standard today.
“Symwave is proud to help drive the accelerated migration to the next speed level of 1394b/FireWire technology for both consumer and industrial applications,” said Yossi Cohen,
President and CEO of Symwave, in the press release. “The FirePHY-1600 is a significant leap forward for us in ultra-high speed SERDES design and is a remarkable achievement for our mixed-signal engineering team. This ‘no-compromise’ solution offers our customers the ultimate combination of speed, cost and backwards compatibility.”
FirePHY-1600 is an ideal interface technology for next generation Mac and PC platforms, computer peripheral devices and prosumer applications that demand a high speed interface with guaranteed bandwidth and quality of service. Target applications include Mac and PC interface ports, PC add-in cards and ExpressCards, external storage devices/enclosures, high definition industrial cameras, FireWire hubs/repeaters and high speed Flash card readers. Some unique advantages of FireWire over other high speed serial interfaces include the ability to support 45W power over 1394 cables, peer-to-peer networking and long distance networking over CAT-5, POF and Coax cables.
“We are thrilled that Symwave is introducing the world’s first S1600 silicon solution today,” said James Snider, executive director of the 1394 Trade Association, in the press release. “Symwave’s innovative S1600 technology paves the way for a new breed of high speed applications and firmly establishes IEEE1394 (FireWire) as the interface technology of choice for next-generation products.”
Source: Symwave, Inc.
@ jonahan
When I say they’ve given up on it. I mean they are not pushing it like they should. I mean they invented the thing and someone else is pushing the limits of the tech. If there is any truth to Apple having speeds up to 3.2 in a test lab and not moving on it, its a shame.
I wish the mini had FW800.
Anyone who thinks that USB 2.0 is equal to or greater than FW 400 obviously has never seriously compared the two.
I absolutely HATE that Apple HAD to cater to the lowest common denominator (PeeCee) owners in order for the iPod/iTunes juggernaut to reach critical mass. Putting my iTunes music library on a Gen 3 iPod was blazingly fast. Putting the same library onto my Gen 5 iPod seemed to take an agonizingly longer period of time.
Theoretical limits are just part of the story in transfer speeds. In actuality, FW 400 is a much more efficient protocol (and faster in real-world use) than USB 2.0 could ever hope to be and each succeeding iteration of Firewire makes its superiority even more obvious.
USB 2 has been given more support by Apple for two reasons. A: iPods. As they moved the iPod platform to PCs and USB was more prevalent there, they made a decision to move to all USB for these devices for obvious reasons. Not that it was “better” just because it was more available and would work.
B: Going with Intel, USB being one of their focuses, it again made some sense to integrate USB more fully into the Mac systems and make Intel Happy in the process. It would also be cheaper and allow for more dual use ports on laptops/iMacs etc rather then having more Firewire ports.
While there are other reasons, these are the main ones I believe. Firewire was becoming a niche market as it usually only was useful for video and audio uses. USB 2 was capable of handling external drives and other peripherals well and manufacturers no longer had to offer dual interfaces thus lowering their costs.
However saying USB is superior to FIrewire is hogwash. Firewire maintains a constant peak rate while USB drops noticeably while in use. There is of course bootable Firewire drives and target disc mode which all utilize Firewire, something the PC world would love if they had it available to them. Last there is the power issues and networking and daisy chaining. All significant pluses.
Most PC users only see USB as a external device connector and not much else, if they had the ability to use Firewire to it’s fullest it would not have been shunted aside as easily. It’s the old VHS vs Beta argument. Beta (Firewire) being more superior, lost out to marketing, and licensing and other issues and the consumer paid for it with crappier video quality over the years while Tape was king.
We see the same fight again here with Blueray and HD, however the differences where rather minimal and in the end consumers waited this time till the industries sorted it out and we have a standard that will work for everyone regardless of the money issues/licensing behind it.
Firewire is not perfect but compared to USB it still has many more advantages ahead of it that USB has not caught up with and is likely not to. When you see that you have a superior interface with more advantages compared to a more limited USB why would you choose the more limited interface over the more superior one?
Apple’s handling of Firewire is one of their biggest business blunders since Jobs returned.
Apple shot themselves in the foot when they started charging manufacturers a dollar per Firewire port in the late 90’s–that galvanized the USB camp to develop USB2.
In hindsight, this analysis looks rather silly:
http://www.macobserver.com/columns/appletrader/99/february/990201.html
Apple could’ve had a good thing going, and we as consumers would have benefited. Now we’re stuck with USB2 devices up the wazzoo.
The only drawback I can think of with FireWire stems from one of its primary advantages. Since it accesses the hard drive directly without going through all the channels that USB does, it’s been proven to be exploitable. It would still pretty much require physical presence to pull off though. If there were a way to secure it without breaking the advantage of FW, I can only see that as being yet another plus.
But what shape is the connector? And what’s it’s symbol? Inquiring minds want to know!
(I want to know.)
MPC Guy:
You can’t be serious. USB2 doesn’t work nearly as well as FW400.
It’s worth noting that the inclusion of FW800 in the new iMac has greatly accelerated the adoption and proliferation of FW800 devices.
Most PC manufacturers now include at least a FW400 port.
The next standard which has now been ratified with test silicon being pushed out is FW running at 3.2Gbps over an optical connection using the same Beta cable. It’s expected that shipping products will appear later this year.
>pastrychef wrote: You can’t be serious.
I can, but people usually just laugh at me anyway.
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I’m surprised at the MDN boards today. If someone posts anything even remotely critical of Apple, all sorts of nasty names gets flung their way. Today, some kind folks actually made some great counterpoints.
Isn’t there a wireless protocol as part of FW1600?
Can you imagine wireless sync at these speeds?
Sweeeeeet.
So, just as Apple is pushing Firewire away, it’s technology is improving to the point that it is better than the current solution?
Yeah, that sounds right.
Why, oh why, Apple, have you forsaken Firewire?