On 1/30/05 11:13 AM, "Dan K" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Spew into the Cybertrough:
Firewire delivers 1.5 amps of power where USB 2 only delivers 1.0. USB 2 can handle 127 devices where FW can only handle 63. Firewire is better for sustained read/writes IMHO. Firewire uses a Peer-to-Peer architecture where USB 2 uses Host/Slave. That makes USB 2 easier to use, but slightly slower than rated. Firewire is more expensive, and USB 2 is a standard on the PC side of the digital river.
Amps are not a measure of power but of current. Current times Voltage equals Power. I haven't seen the USB 2 power specs but I'll take the 1.0A figure as correct. USB 1.0 uses 5V and I'm assuming USB 2.0 is the same, it would be hard to be backward compatible if it wasn't. That means USB 2.0 provides 1A x 5V = 5 W of power. Firewire typically uses 12V but it appears it can go quite a bit higher. But even the 12V figure at 1.5A gives you 18W which is a lot more than USB. With current voltage converters available it's pretty trivial to change the voltage to suit.
One nice thing with Firewire is that it is the standard in the professional DAV field so you can use a piece of high end equipment with any old computer with FW.
I think if anyone is using more than 63 FW OR USB devices on a single port they have a big problem. Or even at half that number. The good thing is that the developers of FW and USB made sure the number of devices was large enough to be too much.
--
Clark Martin
Redwood City, CA, USA
Macintosh / Internet Consulting
"I'm a designated driver on the Information Super Highway"
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