Apple’s Firewire IEEE-1394 Port originally was an idea just to increase the performance and connectivity capabilities of USB Port. before introducing Firewire Port let me just give you a glimpse about USB Port. Well USB Port was designed to connect 127 devices per port and accordingly the data transfer speed negotiates just between 12Mb per second. For example like if we connect any Video device that uses computer’s streaming bandwidth, then it can only stream between 10 to 12Mb per second speed and if we connect same type of second device with same port then speed decreases to the half. But now Apple Inc. introduces an all new architecture Serial Bus connectivity which uses Twisted Paired Wiring to transfer data from one end to the other. They named it Firewire Port and later IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) standardized it 1394 Port.
Just like USB Port, Apple’s Firewire IEEE-1394 Port can handle 63 Devices per Port which is too low as compare to USB that can handle 127 Devices per Port but, where USB Port is limited to just 12Mb per second data transfer speed, Apple’s Firewire can handles up to 400Mb per second speed, which is drastically improved by this latest serial bus architecture. In this can you cannot only stream your video too fast but you can watch it by playing the video when it is copying to/from your computer. And just like USB Port, Apple’s Firewire IEEE-1394 Port allows you to plug-and-unplug your devices any time. This Firewire IEEE-1394 Port comes in 2 different types of pin settings 4 pin connector for consumer electronics and a 6 pin connector for computers end.
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