Article: Firewire Now
Firewire Peripherals
|
Related Article
|
HomeNetHelp's Pyro FireWire Drive Kit Review
-read |
Firewire's easy topology (daisy chaining), the ability to hot swap (aka hot plug),
and the high speeds(400Mbps) make it a perfect bus for connecting peripherals to
your computer. Connecting scanners, hard drives, printers, multi-media devices,
etc could be as easy as plugging in a single common cable. The industry is starting
to catch on to this. Firewire may eventually turn out to be a replacement for SCSI
for external peripherals. Already major drive manufacturers like Western Digital
are producing external Firewire devices. ADS Technology even has a Firewire
webcam that is able to transmit 640X480 30fps uncompressed!
Sharing Peripherals?
Since multiple computers can inhabit a Firewire bus, the question of sharing peripherals
arises. Can more than one computer connected by Firewire share a single peripheral
like a hard drive or CDRom?
Test Bed
System 1 Windows ME - Clean Install
Pyro 1394 Firewire card from ADS Technologies
System 2 Windows ME - Clean Install
1394 3-Port PCI i/e Firewire Card from SIIG
Firewire Device
Pyro 1394 Drive Kit with IDE Hard Drive
Hardware Version 0500A
Software Version 10483
Firmware 09:58:25 Mar 6 2000
Testing Procedure
The two computers were each connected to the Firewire drive individually first.
This verified that each computer was configured correctly. After verification both
computers were powered down and connected to the Firewire drive using two of the
three ports on the back of the drive.
Test Conclusion
Can more than one computer connected by Firewire share a single perhipheral? In
Short, the answer is no. Windows and Macintosh computers do not have the necessary
software built in to share hard drives or CDRom with multiple computers over firewire.
This is a limitation of the operating systems, not a limitation of Firewire.
If multiple computers and a Hard Drive or CDROM are connected together by firewire,
the first computer that boots up gets control of the device. There seems to be no
way to change this or alter this operation.
Glimmer of Hope? Firewire Scanners
There are a couple of
scanners on the market that can be shared among many users connected via
Firewire. The industry has this in mind and will develop the necessary software
if people are interested. The sharing problem for Hard Drives and CDRom's appears
to be at an operating system level.
Why Firewire for Peripherals at all?
Connected to a single computer, Firewire devices perform very well. They are fast,
hot-plugable and are auto-addressing. Firewire devices do not require termination
and are chainable in many configurations. Firewire makes a very good replacement
for SCSI as a peripheral interface.
Microsoft's Position
According to some papers at http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/1394
, Microsoft is interested in making their operating systems capable of controlling
access to Firewire devices. Microsoft is definitely looking at improving the peripheral
sharing situation, but it may take some time. I will be interested to see what Microsoft's
next operating system, Whistler, has in store.
Apples peripheral sharing position is unknown at this time. I will
be looking into Firewire support in OS-X for information on this.
Shop for best prices on
|
Peripherals
Menu:
