Resource sites to visit for more information about USB and USB product compatibility and availability:

www.usb.org

www.allusb.com

developer.intel.com/design/usb/
and
www.apple.com/usb

• What's next? USB 2.0.

• System Specifications

While the two serial buses seem similar they are intended to fulfill different bandwidth and cost needs. 1394 can move more data in a given amount of time, but is considerably more expensive than USB due to its more complex protocol and signaling rate. Unlike FireWire, which is orders of magnitude faster, and allows peer-to-peer interaction without CPU intervention, USB controls peripheral devices in a master/slave relationship.

Applications that are best suited for 1394 are disk drives, high quality video streams and other high bandwidth applications; all higher end consumer devices. USB is appropriate for middle and low bandwidth applications such as audio, scanners, printers, keyboards, and mice. USB and 1394 are complementary technologies.

The future USB 2.0 and 1394 primarily differ in terms of application focus. USB 2.0 will support the full range of popular PC peripherals while 1394 targets connection to audio visual consumer electronic devices such as digital camcorders, digital VCRs and digital televisions.

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