FireWire Gets Ready to Go Wireless 215
mindless4210 writes "The 1394 Trade Association has approved a specification for the development of wireless FireWire applications, which will let 1394-enabled devices, both wired and unwired, to connect with each other. The new spec will enable communication between a variety of devices, such as set-top boxes, HDTVs, tuners, and DVD players, all of which will be able to interoperate in home networks. Officials speculated that in the future there could be plug-in cards for set-top boxes enabling wireless connection to DVD players and hard-disk drives. The trade association also said it will work with the WiMedia Alliance to jointly develop collaborative products."
A future without cables and wires (Score:5, Insightful)
Extending FireWire is one piece of the puzzle, and I for one am anxious to see the products that will result.
WiFi? (Score:4, Insightful)
Can't we refine one and use it for all these different applications? Or are these different protocols content-specific? (i.e. some protocols are good with video, others are better with raw data?) I haven't seen anything showing this.
Talk About iPodjacking! (Score:1, Insightful)
Worthless (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe it will be useful for high speed channel changing.
Can't they all just get along? (Score:3, Insightful)
Firewire with no wires = no power. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:A future without cables and wires (Score:5, Insightful)
As others have mentioned, that's a great vision for signal cables. However, all of those devices still need a power supply of some sort. So, either you
I agree, I'd love to be able to move my computer stuff around without worrying about pulling the speaker/monitor/mouse/keyboard/network/etc. cables. However, until power is taken care of, you're still going to have one cable for each appliance.
Indeed! (Score:2, Insightful)
Merely lacking wires doesn't automatically make everything magically easy to configure... in fact in some ways having wires leading from device to device actually helps configuration in many ways, and especially helps with troubleshooting.
I can't really see the average non-VCR-programming type being able to easily set up any more than about 3 wireless devices. Hell, I can program my VCR but it takes half an hour to get my TV, PS2, stereo, VCR and DVD player set up together...
Re:WiFi? (Score:2, Insightful)
USB2 wouldn't have come so soon if FireWire wasn't around. And FireWire 800 wouldn't be here if USB2 hadn't shown up.
Next, we're going to see competition between FireWireless and 802.11. Expect furthur improvements.
Re:Because cell phones aren't bad enough (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Can't they all just get along? (Score:3, Insightful)
Sure, the market might fragment initially, but at least the better standard stands some kind of chance to gain dominance. Imagine if everyone settled on FireWire for the high-speed peripheral bus, and USB never got a chance? We wouldn't have the benifits of USB, namely bus-powered devices, lower cost, support for many devices on the same bus; and then much later, high-speed USB which can finally compete with FireWire regarding bandwidth.
Re:Can't they all just get along? (Score:4, Insightful)
This makes no sense. One of the benefits of USB is bus-powered devices? Like my iPod?
Lower cost? What makes USB lower cost than firewire (cost != price)?
Many devices on the same bus? Like my video camera being controlled by my powerbook as it spools video off onto an external disk (or two)?
High-speed USB that's theoretically similar in speed to firewire being developed while the new firewire standards were being developed is a benefit? That makes the latest USB (theoretically) a little more than half the speed of the latest firewire.
I mean, I'm all for competition and stuff, but USB never seemed to be in the same space as firewire.
Re:A future without cables and wires (Score:3, Insightful)
6. Plug in the devices into a traditional outlet.
While the power issue certainly does take away some the benefits of wireless connectivity, if all I had to do was plug one power cable in to an outlet for each device, and Wireless FireWire will take care of the rest, eliminating all of the other cables, I would still be extremely happy. It's not just the cables themselves and the space they take up that is a nuissance, it's also the matter of routing and connecting one box to the next. The power cord doesn't have that problem--it's pretty idiot-proof, that the power cord goes from the device to a power supply. Perhaps I'm giving Wireless Firewire too much credit and it won't be able to do all the routing logic on it's own, but my experience with Firewire is that the protocol is really intelligent and you just plug the devices in and they work, so I don't think it's too great of a leap.
Re:Spectrum crowding much? (Score:3, Insightful)
There's as much bandwidth between 1 and 2 GHz as there is between 0 and 1000Hz.
Plus thanks to sneaky mathematical models they can all operate in the same space but not interfere absolutely... it's diffcult to deploy lots of long range services, but for short stuff it's fine.
Re:Can't they all just get along? (Score:3, Insightful)
Token-ring (16Mbps)
- high efficiency, degrades gracefully (you can use all 16Mbps)
- requires smart hardware
- preferred by a few manufacturers
Ethernet (10Mbps)
- degrades horribly, long delays encountered at 35% utilisation.
- simpler hardware
- cheaper
Personally I prefer Firewire, and wish it was as broadly supported as usb. But it's not, so it probably won't be.