beautypg.com

Capabilities of 1394b (firewire 800), Iidc v1.31 camera control standards, Compatibility between 1394a and 1394b – ALLIED Vision Technologies Stingray F-504 User Manual

Page 36

background image

FireWire

STINGRAY Technical Manual V4.4.4

35

Capabilities of 1394b (FireWire 800)

FireWire 800 (S800) was introduced commercially by Apple in 2003 and has
a 9-pin FireWire 800 connector (see details in Hardware Installation Guide
and in Chapter

IEEE 1394b port pin assignment

on page 89). This newer 1394b

specification allows a transfer rate of 800 MBit/s with backward compatibil-
ities to the slower rates and 6-pin connectors of FireWire 400.

The 1394b capabilities in detail:

800 Mbit/s

All previous benefits of 1394a (see above)

Interoperability with 1394a devices

Longer communications distances (up to 500 m using GOF cables)

IIDC V1.31 camera control standards

Twinned with 1394b, the IIDC V1.31 standard arrived in January 2004, evolv-
ing the industry standards for digital imaging communications to include

I/O and RS232 handling, and adding further formats. At such high band-
widths it has become possible to transmit high-resolution images to the PC’s
memory at very high frame rates.

Compatibility between 1394a and 1394b

1394a camera connected to 1394b bus

The cable explains dual compatibility: This
cable serves to connect an IEEE 1394a camera
with its six-pin connector to a bilingual port (a
port which can talk in a- or b-language) of a
1394b bus.

In this case the b-bus communicates in

a-language and a-speed with the camera
achieving a-performance

1394b camera connected to 1394a bus

The cable explains dual compatibility: In this
case, the cable connects an IEEE 1394b camera
with its nine-pin connector to a 1394a port.

In this case the b-camera communicates in

a-language with the camera achieving

a-performance

Figure 4: 1394a and 1394b cameras and compatibility

1394b port

1394a camera

1394a port

1394b camera