In the last two weeks, I’ve posted a couple of articles about Firewire and how it appears to be going bye-bye on Apple’s product line. Well thankfully there are indications out there that would dispute that.
First off, the High Definition Audio Video Network Alliance has given Firewire the honorable, and huge support, nob as the method of transport for A/V signals. The press release points out that, “IEEE 1394 is the only digital interface that has an FCC mandate to be included in Digital Cable Set Top Boxes.” That’s a lot of Firewire in a few years. With heavy hitters making up this group such as Charter Communications, JVC, Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, Inc., NBC Universal, Samsung and Sun Microsystems, this gives good reason for Apple, home of the digital hub, to stick with Firewire.
Second, daveschroeder left an excellent post on ZDNet’s site refuting the demise of Firewire. As he points out, Firewire is on the increase in its install base. When I built my PC about 18 months ago, I couldn’t find a single motherboard with Firewire support yet this week alone, I’ve installed two boards with such support (neither Intel, of course.) Additionally, there is no replacement for Firewire in the DV market and the first point above just goes on to strengthen the point of Firewire as the DV choice of protocol. Dave makes other points but one really good one is the fact that USB is host dependent while Firewire isn’t. This means if you remove Firewire from the computer, one of OS X’s most powerful feature, Target mode, will be gone. Steve wants to make his computer less like Windows, not more. 🙂
Finally, other major brands such as Dell, HP, and Sony support Firewire and none have made any indications of removing it from its product line. In fact, both HP and Dell have increased its support for the protocol once called 1394 by the PC community (save Sony which termed it iLink.)
So in the end, I would have to say that Firewire is not leaving us. It may not appear on the low-end Intel notebooks we keep hearing about but I would say it will still be available on the mid to high-end products. I would figure that if we don’t see the D-shaped port on lesser Intel notebooks, then I would presume that would be due to using an all Intel motherboard. Remember, Intel doesn’t have one motherboard with 1394 support, so this would make sense to see an all Intel laptop motherboard without it, too.
[tags]apple,intel,firewire,support,target mode[/tags]