The State of FireWire: not here nor there

Following up an earlier post about some of the reasons Apple picked FireWire over eSATA in the new MacBook Pro range, let’s take a look at what’s in store for the future of FireWire.  On the road map to succeed the current FireWire 400 and 800 standards are the aptly-named IEEE 1600 and 3200 ports.  They are – you guessed it – twice as fast as the current implementations of the current IEEE 1394 interface – FireWire 400 and 800.

Speed-wise

FireWire 1600 has the ability to push bits at a rate of 1.6Gbit/s (200MB/s), while FireWire 3200 doubles that number to 3.2Gbit/s (400MB/s).  For comparison’s sake, FireWire 1600 is just 0.1Gbit/s (12.5MB/s) faster than SATA 1.5 while FireWire 3200 is a full 25MB/s (.2Gbit/s) faster than SATA 3.0.  FireWire 1600 and 3200 use the same 9-circuit beta connectors as the existing FireWire 800 standard, as opposed to the FireWire 400 connector – which is the alpha connector.  In most cases, this most likely means that if you have a FireWire 800 port, you’ll be able to connect a FireWire 1600 or a 3200 device without the need for an adapter, yet be limited to 800Mbit/s (the speed of FireWire 800).  Those with a FireWire 400 port (using the alpha connector) will need an adapter to connect peripherals using the new standard but would not be able to operate them at a rate higher than 400Mbit/s. 

Product-wise

Expect to see FireWire 1600 and 3200 replace the current FireWire 400 and 800 interfaces in the typical fashion: higher-end systems will get the new ports first, which will later make their way into lower-end systems, until – eventually – it is seen on most machines (that is, unless netbooks take over the world).  In essence, FireWire 1600 is analogous to today’s FireWire 400 (destined for lower-end systems), while FireWire 3200 can be equated to FireWire 800 – which is seen on higher-end machines.  Given the fact that the IEEE 1394 interface has been adopted as the HANA (High-Definition Audio-Video Network Alliance) standard connection interface for A/V component communication and control, it most likely will be very popular with audio/visual devices (as has been the case with the current FireWire 400 and 800 implementations).

Time-frame-wise

In December of 2007, the 1394 Trade Association announced that products based on the new FireWire 1600 and 3200 standards will be available before the end of 2008.  Unfortunately, very few products based on the new spec have been seen.  This is surprising, due to the fact that the spec was made available to manufacturers in October of 2008.  Given this fact, I’d say that the state of FireWire is not here nor there: older (400 and 800) FireWire specs are being manufactured into current hardware (machines, motherboards, PCI cards, and external equipment), but the newer and faster specs aren’t to be seen.  What gives?  Perhaps we will bypass the entire next-gen FireWire spec altogether and make the jump to eSATA?  Look out for a follow-up post on this soon.