mdb
13 April 2011
What are the core differences between USB and Firewire? How many I/O can each handle simultaneously, what are the data transfer rate differences, advantages or disadvantages of each? Are there limitations?
From searching, I didn't find anything here that did a direct comparison of the technologies and think it would be a great resource for those trying to decide what type of gear to buy for their specific needs.
Comments
USB2.0 has a theoretically higher bandwidth than 1394a (firewire
USB2.0 has a theoretically higher bandwidth than 1394a (firewire 400). In practical usage that doesn't pan out even remotely because the fundamental difference is that USB 2.0 is not bi directional. Data cannot travel both ways at the same time. So reliable for more than four or eight simultaneous inputs is about as far as you get. Now, several companies have written better USB protocols like RME (Babyface, UFX, UC) but for critical projects firewire is the goto protocol-until you move into PCIe cards which win the race hands down for both latency and speed and stability.