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