At 03:28 PM 1/31/2003, Mike typed thusly: >The following are responses to Tom Keller's post: > ><I don't believe apple ever made any PCI Mac to support usb 2.0 since >they threw their >support behind firewire <snip>... Hey folks, we got FIREWIRE!, come get >yours!> > >Firewire has been out for years, so where are the Firewire keyboards, >mice, cameras or other devices?
Why bother with firewire for keyboards and mice? They don't need the throughput. As far as cameras, well, my brother has a firewire-based digital cam*corder* (not digital still camera.) Some may exist, I don't know. A Firewire keyboard would be like a turbocharged V8 for a Yugo. It's a bit of overkill. >Seems Apple only wants it for major throughput I/O for mass >storage/CD/DVD devices. Exactly. THe same stuff they used SCSI (the previous "fast" bus - though IIRC Firewire's still an outgrowth of SCSI. DVD/CD burners, external hard drives, etc. want the fastest bus they can get. Add to it the ease of hooking up via Firewire (no reboot like you needed with SCSI, no ID conflicts, and fast enough to get the job done) and you see the reasons for their use of Firewire. >They are not competing very well by allowing >only USB to satisfy that sector of the market. Wouldn't they have >licensed Firewire to 3rd parties for such devices? Why wouldn't Apple >envision a computer that only needs Firewire and not USB at all? Again... why bother? Even with an ADB (or PS/2 on the PC side) connection, you're not overwhelming the bus with typing (if you are, you've probably broken many keyboards this year.) Mice *might* be taking more advantage of USB with the "more precise," optical mice that are out now, but I'd doubt they're even really pushing the USB bus all that hard. Then there's the question of compatibility - USB keyboards and mice are finally commonplace. Do you want people to rewrite drivers(for a smaller market segment) drivers, do more hardware testing, etc. for a few "Firewire keyboards?" Give me one good reason for a Firewire keyboard. Why should there be one (besides "The bus is there?") -Eric -- PCI-PowerMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Sonnet & PowerLogix Upgrades - start at $169 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> PCI-PowerMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/pci-powermacs.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive:<http://www.mail-archive.com/pci-powermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
