History (1999): Apple Demands Royalties for IEEE 1394 or FireWire

Apple Computer got slightly carried away when it demanded $1 per IEEE 1394 or FireWire port, which drove away more than one of the 170 member firms of the 1394 Trade Association.

At that price, the high quality interface was doomed to failure.

Since them, Apple seems to have regained hold of its senses, with a more reasonable price. From now on, patents can be licensed for a fee of $0.25 per system, and no more per port, regardless of the number of components that incorporate 1394 PHY LSI.

All this is the result of a joint licensing program implemented by 11 companies: Apple, Canon, Compaq, Intel, Matsushita Electric Industrial, Mitsubishi Electric, Philips, Sony, STMicroelectronics, Toshiba and Zayante.

One of the ardent defenders of this interface from the beginning, TX Instruments, is nonetheless oddly not a member of the consortium.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 139 on August 1999 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.