FireWire (also known as i.LINK and IEEE1394) is a great engineering solution. It transports asynchronous and isochronous data at high speeds, whilst maximising throughput. Although FireWire 400 (currently the most common form) has a slower data rate on the wire than USB2.0, it typically has significantly higher throughput.

At Absolute Software, most of our embedded FireWire experience is centred around audio over FireWire. The standardised method for transporting audio over FireWire is IEC61883. Even Yahama's mLAN uses this standard for it's audio transport. IEC61883 devices are automatically detected by Windows, much like standard USB audio devices.

FireWire is a future-proofed technology, because from day one they planned for higher data rates (up to 3.2Gbit/s). This means that when the technology catches up with the design, i.e. when they release S1600 and S3200 (expected at the end of 2008), products will remain backwards compatible with S100, S200, S400, etc.

The main difference between FireWire and USB is that FireWire offloads most of its 'host' processing to the silicon. This makes USB lower cost, but it makes FireWire a higher performance solution.

• Isochronous audio
• Asynchronous data channel
• FireWire
• IEEE1394
• i.LINK