History 2003: Arrival of FireWire 800

Here comes the new interface promised and delivered: FireWire (or IEEE 1394b) at 800Mb/s:

• Apple Computer has launched a new PowerBook G4, probably the first computer with the new interface.
• An external HDD drive for Apple computers that integrate the new FireWire was released by SmartDisk. The product is based on a 7,200rpm Maxtor drive with 200GB. Called FirePower, the unit also has a USB 2.0 interface and will be available next March.
• La Cie, another major vendor of peripherals for Macintosh platforms, is offering FireWire on external HDDs at 200GB (7,200pm, $479), 250GB (4,500rpm, $539), and on configurations integrating 2 disks in the same box at 400GB ($879) and 500GB ($999). The drives include the new OXUF922 IDE-to-FireWire chip ($15), which also supports USB 2.0, from Oxford Semiconductor. The latter specializes in bridges between 1394 and ATA units, as does Initio, which is also planning a chip, the FireWire 800 INIC-2430.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 180 on January 2003 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.