FireWire Feedback

[saaya]

Used to be that ipods and highend video cameras used firewire to move huge files around quickly, but usb has caught up and since licensing is cheaper on usb, firewire has lost most of its supporters... all recent video cams are usb, as far as i know, and apple has stopped pushing firwire only as well, which leaves many wondering what firewire is good for these days.

I know some of you want firewire, now is the time to speak up

And again, thanks for the feedback!

[Vatos_locos]

i have never used a firewire device and i don't think i will so i voted dont use it dont want it

[INFRNL]

I have used fire once on an external dvd drive; no need for it now and as Saaya says; USB has caught up and will be getting even better soon; so I say dump it or do not use it!

[speedfreak86]

Never had it, never used it, never want it. Definitely don't want to pay to have it.

[saaya]

well we use the best firewire chip on our boards, the texas instruements one, but even that one is cheap... i think 2$ or so.
So thats why we used it until now. But i dont know anybody who uses firewire and rarely hear of somebody who does... and more important than saving cost is saving pcb space and ioshield space that we can use to add some other chip or use the space to improve signaling etc, and use the free ioshield space for more usb ports

[Serpentarius]

looks like the firewire has lost its flame

[BenchZowner]

It's a useful thing to have.
I need it for my camcorders and also prefer it over USB when it comes to external HDDs/enclosures that don't have a e-SATA connector.

[SoulsCollective]

I don't know of anything mainstream that uses it these days, TBPH. Waste of space.

[xXlAinXx]

Edit* Almost all well finished enclosures have at least x1 - IEEE1394 and some HDV (miniDV type) cam still require the firewire port for real timing operation like video tranfert/capture. Edit* Prob is not necessary the external port.

[zanzabar]

newer enclosures are usb or usb + esta firewire is a legacy connection. and while i agree with camcorders a card is like $5 and most camcorders have switched to usb

[saaya]

hmmm thats the btch tho, even tho a standard ist used anymore, people still carry devices with/for that standard...
its annoying and you can get a card and its cheap... im a bit worried tho that there are only so many cards you can use...

theres no easy solution to this...

[zanzabar]

what chips are there what would hybrid firewire with something else

[Alex Suraci]

I say remove it. Continuing to support it will only lengthen its life. It's like when Apple dropped the Floppy drive, this can only be good in the long run.

If necessary you could just include it as an expansion slot, my EVGA board came with one of those. It's annoying seeing it on cases - such an old, dead port that I'll never ever use on this brand new top of the line hardware.

[saaya]

what chips are there what would hybrid firewire with something else

dont think there is a mix chip with firewire and something else... firewire plus sound seems to exist on some highend soundcards... and there are firewire plus usb chips, which are entirely useless to integrate on mainboards since usb is really something we have enough of...

2 ports would probably be enough for most people if you would integrate a usb hub on the board...

[zanzabar]

can u get a fire wire and usb chip and have some USB ports with higher polling by default or lower latency. and what about the via envy sound that has 7.1, virtual surround, openAL and firewire. ive had cards with it and its a great chip

[saaya]

it is? are you sure? i read an article about it some time ago and the conclusion was that its virtual soround sound was not that good... and openAL is pretty pointless nowadays... but ill check it out

[zanzabar]

how is openAL pointless, vista and win7 only use openAL for hardware acceleration, and virtual surround over stereo headphones works (speakers it dosnt) and with openAL virtual surround adjusts the delay and mixes it so it has good directional.

the only problem is no alchemy

[Prozium]

well , FireWire is still king in the audio interface world. and like mentioned people still have devices that require it, plus its cheep.

so I say include it but not on the IO panel. include it as an expansion slot add on that plugs in to the board. that way it frees up IO panel space and you would still be catering to the people who still need it.

[jagass]

I haven't use firewire before...