IEEE 1394, formerly FireWire. A 1995 Macintosh/IBM PC serial bus interface standard offering high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data services. 1394 can transfer data between a computer and its peripherals at 100, 200, or 400 Mbps, with a planned increase to 2 Gbps. Cable length is limited to 4.5 m but up to 16 cables can be daisy-chained yielding a total length of 72 m. It can daisy-chain together up to 63 peripherals in a tree-like structure (as opposed to SCSI's linear structure). It allows peer-to-peer device communication, such as communication between a scanner and a printer, to take place without using system memory or the CPU. It is designed to support plug-and-play and hot swapping. Its 6-wire cable is not only more convenient than the SCSI cables but can supply up to 60 watts of power, allowing low-consumption devices to operate without a separate power cord.
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