

FireWire devices are called hot pluggable. If the device is already installed, the computer will automatically activate it and start communicating with it.
MAC USING FIREWIRE FOR MOVIE CAPTURE DRIVER
When connecting a new device to your computer, the operating system will detect it and ask for a driver disc. This process is called enumeration, with the computer giving each device an address. If you have a computer that is connected to any external devices, the computer will query all devices that are connected whenever it starts to power up. In recent years, however, Macs have been installed with an interface called Thunderbolt.

FireWire 800 can work with FireWire 400 equipment as well. FireWire was initially developed by Apple and was a standard feature on many of the Mac computers for several years. FireWire 800 hubs can also connect devices that are up to 100 meters apart. It is predicted that it may not be too far into the future when these rates increase to 3.2 Gbps. These transfer rates are often up to 800 Mbps. Having multiple devices that all operate together at maximum efficiency is what FireWire is all about. The following information describes what FireWire is, how it works, the difference between FireWire and USB, and how all this matters regarding the efficiency of multiple devices.įireWire, which is also called IEEE 1394, is a connecting device used primarily for adding peripherals to a computer. FireWire is often used for connecting external hard drives and digital camcorders that benefit from a high transfer rate. Connectivity is an important aspect of computer technology.

In simplest terms, FireWire enables high-speed communication between two separate computers or between a computer and a peripheral, such as a keyboard or a digital camera.
