This past summer Apple announced its with a surprising omission: no FireWire port. In its place is Apple's latest peripheral connector, USB 3.0, which provides equivalent performance and is widely used in recent Windows PCs. Then in October, Apple revealed a 13-inch MacBook Pro and new iMacs, all with the same limitation. If two points comprise a line, then the line made by these announcements indicates the end of FireWire on future Macs. Alas, FireWire is widely used in the Mac world to attach external hard drives, cameras and camcorders, and music processing gear. USB 2.0 is too slow for these purposes; USB 3.0 is too new to have been supported by still useful (and expensive) legacy gear; and the Thunderbolt technology introduced 18 months ago in almost all new Mac models is still too rare and expensive. (At 10Gbps, Thunderbolt it is more than 10 times faster than the fastest 800Mbps FireWire and about seven times as fast as USB 3.0.) So what can the many users with significant investments in FireWire devices do when upgrading to new Macs? There are solutions, but all have drawbacks, which you must carefully weigh before buying. [ Check out the.| For tips and tools for managing an enterprise Mac fleet, download InfoWorld's free today.| See InfoWorld's.| Keep up with key Apple technologies with the. ] [ Stay up to date with.| Get. ] There's an adapter for that The seemingly obvious solution to a FireWire ouster is the one Apple released this fall: its $29. This one-way adapter (you can't use it to convert a Mac FireWire interface to Thunderbolt) supports a FireWire 800 attachment; you can then use a FireWire 800-to-FireWire 400 conversion cable to attach FireWire 400 devices. The adapter works well when it works, providing full FireWire 800 performance. But users of the adapter have encountered a frustrating limitation: Only 7W of bus power is supplied to an attached device. The FireWire standard supports up to 45W, although most computers, including Macs, deliver 10W to 20W. Some bus-powered FireWire devices have an optional DC power port, even if they don't include an AC power adapter. If you can externally power your device, you can bypass the 7W limitation. Otherwise you'll need to explore other solutions. Even if you can run within the 7W budget or bypass it, another limitation may stop you. Apple's adapter still looks like Thunderbolt to the Mac, so if your application won't work with Thunderbolt, the adapter may be useless to you. [ ] One documented failure mode is running Microsoft Windows under Boot Camp interfacing to non-hard-disk FireWire devices. Windows works fine under Boot Camp with external FireWire disk attached via Apple's adapter, but it does not have Thunderbolt drivers compatible with Apple's adapter for non-hard-disk FireWire devices. Firewire cable. Staples Sites. Insten 4 Packs USB to IEEE 1394 Firewire 4 Pin Cable iLink DV 6FT Item: 2476549 / Model: 379013. Add to Favorites. Connect your camera to any USB port with this USB to IEEE 1394 FireWire 4-pin data cable; Transfers data at rates up to 480 Mbps. A workaround is to run your Windows application in a Mac OS X-resident hypervisor, such as Parallels or VMware Fusion, both of which work with Apple's adapter. There may be similar compatibility issues with non-disk FireWire devices such as scanners, cameras, and music processing gear. If the controlling application doesn't support Thunderbolt, it may not work with the adapter. Device-specific solutions: Enclosures and intermediaries If you determine that Apple's 'universal' adapter solution won't work for you, you'll have to move on to device-specific solutions. An easy, although somewhat labor-intensive, workaround for external hard drives is to change to a new enclosure that supports either Thunderbolt or USB 3.0, such as New Technology's $99 enclosure, which has both USB 3.0 and FireWire interfaces. For hard drive transfer speeds, USB 3.0 and FireWire 800 have equivalent performance. You can purchase the enclosure now to future-proof your drive investment. What if you have a bevy of external FireWire hard drives?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |