On Jan 15, 2006, at 5:45 PM, Jerry Yeager wrote: > This article explains how to put FireWire800 or eSATA back into the > new Mac laptops. > > http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/8219/ > > I am not sure that I believe the reasoning implied / given in this > article for moving these things over to the ExpressCard slot, it > sounds a bit glib and specious, but I guess we shall see. After > all, the reason USB things got so inexpensive was 'cuz eveyone > started using them. Making them (the new stuff) an add-on (loses > economy of scale) sounds like a way to make the end price even more > expensive defeating the old price/value reason for having a Mac.
I think the reason why Firewire 800 didn't make it into the new Books is that the Intel chipset on which they're based doesn't have built- in support for it. Apple probably uses a custom chip in the PowerBooks to get it, and when they started using the Intel I/O chips and a pretty much standard Intel motherboard, their chip was a square peg with no hole. Intel has never really been a proponent of Firewire because they invented USB. Apple has been a big Firewire supporter because they invented it. Sony was the other big backer of Firewire--they called it i.Link--for video transfer [2]. On the other hand, that ExpressCard stuff is pretty hot. From what I've read on the site for the ExpressCard consortium [1], the slot was designed to work as either a PCI Express slot or a USB2 slot, with the proper card plugged in. Since PCI Express supports 2.5 Gb/s, there should be no problem supporting Firewire 800 on it. Becuase Intel and Dell are both supporting it, there are already decks of cards for it. The question is whether any of them will acquire Mac drivers. [1] <http://www.expresscard.org> [2] <http://products.sel.sony.com/semi/nriLINK.html> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: smime.p7s Type: application/pkcs7-signature Size: 2398 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.math.louisville.edu/pipermail/macgroup/attachments/20060115/0262a748/attachment.bin
