Question: What is an IEEE port and Firewire Port?
The IT Guy says:
Firewire is a common name for the IEEE 1394b standard, which is used for data transfer on computers. USB is a more familiar and presently ubiquitous transfer standard: virtually every new computer shipped today includes at least one USB port for a variety of computer peripherals including printers, mice, digital cameras, etc.
Firewire was originally created by engineers at Apple computer in the mid-1990s. It is now a recognized and broadly accepted data transfer standard, particularly for digital video applications. The transfer rate of USB 1 devices is 11 Mbps. Firewire's transfer rate is more than 20 times faster, maxing out at a theoretical 400 Mbps. Actual transfer rates are usually slower, but the bottom line is that firewire is extremely fast and is preferred over USB 1.0 for large data transfers.
If your computer did not ship with an included Firewire port, a relatively inexpensive PCI card can generally be added to desktop computers including at least one IEEE 1394b port. Some cards include additional USB ports as well as firewire ports. Laptop computers without built-in firewire ports can generally use a firewire PC card for connectivity.
For more information about Firewire, refer to http://www.apple.com/firewire.
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