3 Different Types of Firewire Cards Explained
FireWire cards are connectors on your computer that cater for the transfer of information or digital data from one FireWire device to another and quite quickly at that. They also allow the use of external digital devices such as CD or DVD writers to be faster than internal ones. Because of this, they enhance the function of your computer by overcoming space limitations that are often the fault of internal devices and at the same time beat the high data transfer rate from the internal devices. FireWire cards operate as fast as 400mb per second while transferring data bundles as big as 400 megabits via the same speed. These cards have upgraded over time. Here is a look at a few.
FireWire 400 Card
This delivers data over cables of up to 5 meters in length. As the original FireWire card to be instituted, this card has several limitations. They are not often available in self-powered mode and they do not cater for peer-to-peer sharing, making it very limiting. Data transfer speed is also slower as is the amount of data transferred.
FireWire 800 3-Port PCI Card
This is an upgraded version of the FireWire 400 version and is capable of double the transfer speed. With it, you can enjoy seamless DVD, CD-ROM or any other external drive connection using professional grade glass optical fiber, which is not limited to length and allows long haul cabling such as stages or arenas. It also allows you to connect your computer with other computers or devices simultaneously. It is most favored however when streaming in audio and video data applications. It also has the benefit of peer-to-peer sharing with the overwhelming advantage of being the fastest FireWire card, yet making it suitable for bandwidth-dependent applications, which tend to consume hundreds of megabytes of data per file. These are hence popular inclusions when using digital cameras or a home theater.
FireWire and USB 2.0 Combo PCI Card
As the name suggests, this is a combination of a USB 2.0 and FireWire and connects peripherals faster. It has the advantage of supporting all USB speeds i.e. as low as 1.5 megabytes per second to as fast as 480 megabytes per second. They can also link multiple USB devices in their hundreds. On the FireWire angle, they are compliant with IEEE 1394-95 and 1394A, supporting the latter at a transfer rate of 100-400 megabytes per second. They can also link tens of other FireWire devices. They are popular with printers, scanners and digital/DV camcorders.
To use a FireWire card, you need to know the type of connector that your computer has. This means that you need to determine the number of pins your port has. This is important as most desktop computers come with 6 pin ports whereas, most camcorders come with 4 pin ports, posing a problem which will require you to include a 4 pin to 6 pin cable to cater for the transfer of your digital data.