Does the FireWire device need to be turned on before the device is connected to the FireWire port?

Does the FireWire device need to be turned on before the device is connected to the FireWire port?

Does the FireWire device need to be turned on before the device is connected to the FireWire port? To fully understand this question we need to know what FireWire is and what it does.

FireWire is the brand name for the Apple Inc.'s IEEE 1394 interface product. The brand name for the IEEE 1394 interface product that is manufactured by Sony is called i.Link. IEEE 1394 is a serial bus interface standard for personal computers, as well as digital audio and digital video. It offers high-speed communications as well as isochronous real-time data services. FireWire has replaced the Parallel SCSI in many applications because of lower implementation costs and an easier, more adaptable cabling system. IEEE 1394 has been adopted as the standard connection interface for A/V component communication and control by the High Definition Audio-Video Network Alliance,or HANA. FireWire is also available in a wireless, a fiber optic, and a coaxial version using the isochronous protocols.

Since 1995, almost all the modern digital camcorders have included this connection. Many of the computers that are intended for home or professional audio and/or video use have built-in FireWire ports. This includes all Apple models, some Dell models, and almost all, if not all, Sony laptop computers currently produced. It is also widely available on the retail motherboards for do it yourself personal computers, alongside USB. FireWire was utilized with the earliest models of Apple's iPod, but later models got rid of FireWire support in favor of USB support because of space constraints and the benefit of wider compatibility.

FireWire can connect together up to 63 peripherals in an acyclic topology. It will allow for peer-to-peer device communication, like the communication between a printer and a scanner, to take place without using the system memory or the CPU. FireWire will also support multiple hosts for each bus. FireWire is designed to support hot swapping and Plug-and-play. The six-wire cable of FireWire is more flexible than most of the Parallel SCSI cables, and can supply up to 45 watts of power per port at up to 30 volts, which will allow moderate-consumption devices to operate without a separate power supply. i.Link by Sony normally leaves out the power wiring of the cables and uses a 4-pin connector. Power is provided by a separate power adaptor for each device.

There are different versions of FireWire. There is FireWire 400 and FireWire 800. FireWire 400 has the ability to transfer data between devices at 100, 200, or 400 megabits per second data rates, although the actual transfer rates are 98.304, 196.608, and 393.216 megabits per second. FireWire 800, which is Apple's name for the 9-pin "S800 bilingual" version of the IEEE 1394b standard, was introduced commercially in 2003 by Apple. The newer 1394 specification and the corresponding products will allow a transfer rate of 786.432 megabits per second, and has a backwards compatibility to the slower rates and 6-pin connectors of FireWire 400.

The FireWire system is usually used for the connection of data storage devices and digital video cameras, but it is also very popular in industrial systems for machine vision and for professional audio systems. It is used in place of the more common USB because of its faster effective speed, higher power-distribution capabilities, and also because it does not need a computer host. FireWire also makes full use of all the SCSI capabilities, and when compared to the USB 2.0 Hi-Speed, FireWire has higher sustained data transfer rates, especially on the Apple Mac OS X. The results on Windows operating System varies.

Many of the electronic and computer systems should not be connected or disconnected while powered because this may damage them. FireWire and the other hot swappable devices, however, have connectors and circuits which are designed to make this exact process safe. In spite of this, there have been a few reports of cameras that have been damaged if the pins of the FireWire port are accidentally shorted while swapping. This was especially true for some of the early FireWire devices, but the newer devices appear to have eliminated this specific problem. Furthermore, FireWire 800 ensures that even greater safety is available when hot-swapping. As long as the device is designed and manufactured to the FireWire standard it does not need to be turned on before it is connected to the computer. The computer should be able to tell the difference between a device that is connected and not turned on, and a device that is connected and turned on. In actuality, however, most devices will profit from being turned on at the time they are connected