Tiff, I'm guessing you've had your head up your bum for the past year or so right?

Here : to the left in the pic are 2 USB sockets, and to the right are two types of Firewire sockets (USB also comes in two types of plug aswell, not shown in picture tho)



USB = Universal Serial Bus usually denoted with the symbol

Firewire = IEEE1394, and is usually denoted by the symbol

Difference is;

USB, which stands for Universal Serial Bus, is a high-speed serial standard that, along with FireWire, has almost totally replaced the ordinary serial and parallel standards that have been used in PCs since the 1980s.

In theory, up to 127 devices can be connected to a single USB port on a computer's motherboard, using only one of a computer's 16 or 23 Interrupt Requests (IRQs), either by daisy-chaining them together, or by using a USB hub, which itself has a number of USB ports.

The hub can have its own power source, or draw its power through the computer to which it is attached. To avoid power problems, a powered hub is the best choice. Seven peripherals can be attached to each USB hub. One of these peripherals can be a second hub to which up to another seven peripherals can be connected, and the second hub can be attached to a third hub, etc..

Along with its data-transfer lines, a USB cable carries a 5 volt power supply so that small devices, such as handheld scanners or speakers, do not have to have their own sources of power.

The data transfer speeds of the two standards are now almost the same. The difference remaining between FireWire and USB 2.0 is that USB 2.0 is still a host-based standard - the devices must be connected via a computer in order to communicate. But FireWire is a peer-to-peer standard, which means that the devices can be connected without going through a computer.

For example, two FireWire cameras or camcorders can communicate with each other without being connected to a computer. A camcorder (an analog or digital video camera) can also send and analog or digital video data to a computer in real time, which means there is enough bandwidth available so that the data is not compressed or error-corrected by hardware or software - the digital video input (or copies of it) can be brought to the screen with perfect digital clarity.

Usually a FireWire connection is used on current computers to allow camcorders to have full control of fast-forward, rewind, and other playback options. A USB connection is usually used to copy still images from the camcorder to the computer. A digital camcorder is a superior to an analog camcorder, because there is no analog-to-digital or digital-to-analog conversion involved, therefore the compression process is less involved. Note that at present even digital camcorders can usually only produce stills of poor quality, largely because of the low-resolution images produced by the Charge-Coupled Device (CCD). But progress is so fast that this situation may well not exist very soon and a camcorder will be able to replace a digital camera. Indeed, it may well be that the manufacturers want to sell both products, so maybe camcorders have been purposefully made so that they can't produce quality still images.

The first of the following two images shows a close-up view of a USB connector plug that connects a USB device to a computer. The second image shows a bank of two USB ports found on all fairly recent motherboards. If it is an elderly computer, its motherboard will have a bank of USB 1.1 ports. Most computers manufactured recently have USB 2.0 (USB2) ports. Computers made during the transition between USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 could have motherboards with both types of USB port. Notebook/laptop computers that cost around £1,200 can have 2, 3, or 4 USB ports, but cheaper models may only have a single USB port, so if you need to make use of more than one USB port at the same time, make sure that you buy a model that has the required number of ports

The latest FireWire implementation is much faster than USB 1.1, and quite a bit faster than USB 2.0, but FireWire is not yet nearly as prevalent as USB. - A situation that is might change in FireWire's favour over the next few years, because Microsoft originally intended to support FireWire and not to support USB in Windows XP. Then it eventually gave in to the pressure and included support for USB in Windows XP.

Why Microsoft took this line so soon is difficult to understand, because the USB connection - for hooking up a PC to printers, scanners, digital cameras, CD burners, modems, and every other kind of peripheral - has become the most successful interface in the history of personal computers. So much so that USB is shared by both Apple and Windows-based PCs.

Moreover, USB 2.0 will come under renewed attack, because a newer version of FireWire that is twice as fast as USB 2.0 and its own forerunner, known as IEEE 1394b (or FireWire 800 because of its 800Mbps transfer rate), will soon be available on PCI cards and motherboards.

If you use several USB devices, such as printer(s), external drives, a scanner, etc., you can connect them to a USB switch that allows you to choose which of the devices you want active or switched off. The Belkin 4-Port USB Switch can be used together with a USB hub to connect a set of single peripherals to several computers, or connect several computers to a single peripheral USB device.


Note well that USB and FireWire (IEEE 1394) support hot docking, which allows a USB device to be plugged into the motherboard while the computer is running. Windows will then load the appropriate driver automatically.

This should never be done with other devices that are attached directly to the motherboard, such as a parallel printer or a keyboard. To attach devices that do not support hot docking, the computer must be switched off, otherwise the sudden extra load on the motherboard could destroy it.

In any case, Windows will not be able to load the appropriate drivers for non-USB devices without being rebooted. However, a standard 33.6K or 56K dial-up modem can be connected to a telephone line while the computer is running, because the extra load is small, and it is dealt with by the modem's circuitry, not the motherboard's. But don't ever try it with a printer or a scanner.

Note that unlike serial and parallel ports, USB ports can deliver power to USB devices, so, unless the device is particularly power hungry, it will not require an external power supply.

This feature has caused problems with certain USB modems that draw more power than the USB port can supply, and hence fail while accessing the Internet. So, if you are having connection problems with a USB modem, have a look at its manufacturer's website to find out if it lists the likely causes.

Remember always to only purchase devices the manufacturer's of which have websites. You will then be able to obtain driver updates, and find out about any problems with that device.

Note that a battery-powered computer that uses Advanced Power Management (APM) or Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) may experience increased power consumption that leads to a more rapid discharge of battery power when a USB device is attached to it.


That enough for you?