All About FireWire

 Question:

“I have a 2008 iMac. It has an 800 FireWire port along with a 400 FireWire port. The 400 port is being used by my external hard drive. I have another hard drive that I want to plug in to my iMac 800 port. But the external drive has a 400 port in it. Do you have a FireWire cable that can connect it to my iMac?

 Answer:

Even though this is a direct question, we can expand on this by explaining what FireWire is, and the difference between a 400 and 800 port. FireWire is also known by its technical name IEEE 1394, and is seen mostly on Apple computers. IEEE 1394 is a name to describe the serial bus and the way that it transports data. 1394a is FireWire 400 and 1394b is FireWire 800. FireWire was basically originally intended to be what USB cables are to PC’s. FireWire 400 can transfer data rates at 100, 200, or 400 Megabits per second. This was upgraded and replaced by FireWire 800, which was much faster than the 400, and is backwards compatible with the 400. To answer the question above, a cable that has 400 on one end and 800 on the other will work at 400 speeds and is called a Bilingual FireWire cable. FireWire is also hot swappable and is plug-and-play, designed to work perfectly with any apple or other computer with FireWire ports.

As of this year, the FireWire port in Apple products was replaced by the Lightning port. USB ports are also included on Mac computers as well.

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