by Christopher Lindquist

FireWire Sales on Fire

News
Dec 01, 20011 min
Data Center

The IEEE 1394 (a.k.a. FireWire) interface is going strong, despite the recent downturn in the PC market, according to a recent report from Cahners In-Stat Group.

The report, “IEEE 1394: XP Backs It to the Next Level,” states that 1394-based devices increased by nearly 200 percent from 1999 to 2000, with more than 35 million PC and consumer products based on the standard shipping last year. The report goes on to predict that the number of devices will explode to more than 200 million by the year 2005, with the bulk of those products being consumer devices, such as digital video cameras, instead of computer products, such as external hard disk drives.

There are still questions about the standard’s future, however. While it received a significant boost by its inclusion over USB 2.0 in Windows XP (Microsoft will support USB 2.0, but only with add-on drivers as opposed to support being built in to the operating system), 1394 will still face competition from both USB and the Digital Visual Interface (DVI) in specific markets, the report says.

For more information about the report, visit www.instat.com.