New FireWire standard approved

Permalink: New FireWire standard approved

USB 2.0 could soon face new competition, as the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.) has approved the new IEEE 1394-2008 specification, which is used by Apple’s FireWire.

The specification promises support for better bandwidth of up to 3.2Gbps (S3200), and is backwards compatible with S400 and S800.

The standard should be available in October, according to the IEEE.

At the moment USB is widely used in PCs, mobile devices, HDTVs, digital cameras and many other electronic devices, while Firewire’s guaranteed latency has found it a niche in attached storage and multimedia applications.

However, if Firewire’s faster spec sees it gaining ground, USB could soon retaliate with version 3.0 expected by the year 2010, offering speeds of up to 4.8Gbps.