why 4 AND 6 pin FireWire?
Viorel Negoita
why does FireWire use 2 types of connectors? 4 pin and 6 pin? I have a mac
with 6 pin firewire, and my wife has a sony laptop with 4 pin firewire.
If I get a DV camera (Canon ZR10), then I have to buy 2 cables to use it
on both PC and Mac. Why didn't they use just one type of connector? at
$30/cable... you know, I just wonder why the hell yet another cable?
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Viorel
Alan Somers
connection does not. Power is not needed for a connection between a
computer and a digital camcorder but *is* needed for a connection between
a computer and, say, a hard drive if the drive does not have its own power
supply.
In article
<Pine.LNX.4.10.100102...@magnum.phyast.pitt.edu>, Viorel
Negoita <vio...@magnum.phyast.pitt.edu> wrote:
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Jim Witte
>connection does not. Power is not needed for a connection between a
>
I've never seen a FireWire plug up close, but why didn't they design it
so a 4-pin cable could be plugged into a 6-pin receptacle (I assume it's
not compatible)?
Jim
Bobby Brim
computer community that we're familiar with and they decided that each
peripheral should have access to power from the host device on the bus to
cut down on power cord tangle and too many supplies hanging on the wall.
The other group is the consumer electronics folks - Sony, etc. - that make
stand-alone devices like digital camcorders that require their own power
source independent to a computer and they want to save as much space as
possible (the 6 conductor connectors are larger than the 4 conductor
version) on the device. These companies already have to provide external
power (usually a wall transformer), so they aren't interested in the 6 wire
cables. Also, remember that they were the first to the market with 1394
devices, not computer companies.
Bobby Brim
bb...@qni.com
"Jim Witte" <jsw...@bloomington.in.us> wrote in message
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