[Tfug] USB 2.0 vs. firewire?

[Shawn Nock]

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Brian Masur wrote:
> You say firewire has extra bandwidth?  Isn't USB 2.0 480 mbps and firewire 
> only 400?

That is true, but it is my understanding that nearly all firewire host
chipsets are OHCI and off-load most of the processing required for data
transfer on the bus to the fw chipset. Most USB host chipsets are UHCI
(1.x)/EHCI (2.0) on x86/x64 platforms and require the processor to
interrupt for data transfer.

I believe the theory was that off-loading is more expensive and
computers are fast enough these days to keep up. In my experience
(especially on limited platforms e.g. AMD geode embedded) firewire is a
much better performer even at a lower theoretical max speed.

YMMV,
Shawn

- --
Shawn Nock (OpenPGP: 0xB64200E1)
Broadcast Engineer; KUAT Communications Group
University of Arizona
nock 'at ' arizona 'dot' edu
- --
"Despair leads to boredom, electronic games, computer hacking, poetry,
and other bad habits."  -Edward Abbey
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