CertiGuide to A+ (Core Hardware)  9  Chapter 0111:  Peripheral Devices       9  III  Peripheral Device Interfaces

USB 1 Wireless

Originally developed by Apple Computer under the trademarked name FireWire, IEEE 1394 may well become an industry standard for high bandwidth peripheral devices. Sony has also implemented IEEE 1394 under the trade name iLink. IEEE 1394 is described in the SCSI-3 standards and has sometimes been referred to as 'serial SCSI.'

IEEE 1394 will support 63 devices in a chain, with up to 400 Mb per second of shared bandwidth for the devices. Like USB, IEEE 1394 allows for hot swapping of devices.

Current uses of IEEE 1394 are commonly seen in the digital video cameras, where high bandwidth data transfers are necessary. However many developers are using this technology for other devices such as external hard drives, CD-RWs, and other bandwidth intensive devices. Windows Millennium and XP operating systems supports IEEE 1394. Its growth in the PC market remains to be unseen with the introduction of USB 2.0 with its 480 Mb per second bandwidth capabilities. Currently, only Apple computers and some PC based laptops come with integrated IEEE 1394 technology.

USB 1 Wireless