07-29-2009, 10:45 PM
The biggest difference is that there are 800 little wires in the connector, vs. 400 wires in the FW 400 connector.
The 9 pin connectors have 800 / 9 pins have 88 wires attached to each connector (each has 88, and the one on the end gets a few more)
The 6 pin connectors have 400 / 6 wires has has 67 per connector, (and the 6th pin has a few extra)
The 4 pin connectors have either 100 wires if they are 4 pin to 4 pin, or more, if it goes from 9 pin to 4 pin.
When you convert, the fire in the wire either gets hotter or colder depending on whether it is connected to
a video camera. If it is connecting to a Sony iLink connection, that side always gets hotter if it is connected
to a PC just because that's what Apple prefers. In the case of a 4 to 6 to 9 pin connector conversion, things
get really messy - which is how Oxford University became involved in all of this. Originally there were 900
chips (Oxford 900) involved but now there are 934 for FW800. The Firewire 3200, which actually uses the
same number of chips (Oxford 934) is able to do that because it applies 4x the voltage to get things
going that fast. One thing you never want to do is touch the end of what will soon be FireWire 3200 because
it is 1600 times more voltage than the original Firewire 200 (Oxford 900).
NEC and Texas Instruments have gotten involved as well, but their electrical engineering solutions, while
working with Cambridge (also in England) was involved with the development of FW800 (because the university is 800 years old), but Oxford
was easily able to put Cambridge in the dust because of all the Texans who showed up at Cambridge
began fights with the Japanese while working at the university.
The entire story is told in a book called "Project Orion" - the story of how FireWire was developed as an
offshoot of the nuclear powered space ship (powered by detonations) and how the ends of the wires
glow like fire as they were turned to plasma.
Wow... I need a beer after that one.
The 9 pin connectors have 800 / 9 pins have 88 wires attached to each connector (each has 88, and the one on the end gets a few more)
The 6 pin connectors have 400 / 6 wires has has 67 per connector, (and the 6th pin has a few extra)
The 4 pin connectors have either 100 wires if they are 4 pin to 4 pin, or more, if it goes from 9 pin to 4 pin.
When you convert, the fire in the wire either gets hotter or colder depending on whether it is connected to
a video camera. If it is connecting to a Sony iLink connection, that side always gets hotter if it is connected
to a PC just because that's what Apple prefers. In the case of a 4 to 6 to 9 pin connector conversion, things
get really messy - which is how Oxford University became involved in all of this. Originally there were 900
chips (Oxford 900) involved but now there are 934 for FW800. The Firewire 3200, which actually uses the
same number of chips (Oxford 934) is able to do that because it applies 4x the voltage to get things
going that fast. One thing you never want to do is touch the end of what will soon be FireWire 3200 because
it is 1600 times more voltage than the original Firewire 200 (Oxford 900).
NEC and Texas Instruments have gotten involved as well, but their electrical engineering solutions, while
working with Cambridge (also in England) was involved with the development of FW800 (because the university is 800 years old), but Oxford
was easily able to put Cambridge in the dust because of all the Texans who showed up at Cambridge
began fights with the Japanese while working at the university.
The entire story is told in a book called "Project Orion" - the story of how FireWire was developed as an
offshoot of the nuclear powered space ship (powered by detonations) and how the ends of the wires
glow like fire as they were turned to plasma.
Wow... I need a beer after that one.