FireWire
STINGRAY Technical Manual
V2.2.0
24
In addition to common standards shared across manufacturers, a special
Format_7 mode also provided a means by which a manufacturer could offer
special features (smart features), such as:
•
higher resolutions
•
higher frame rates
•
diverse color modes
as extensions (advanced registers) to the prescribed common set.
Capabilities of 1394b (FireWire 800)
FireWire 800 (S800) was introduced commercially by Apple in 2003 and has
a 9-pin FireWire 800 connector (see details in
Hardware Installation Guide
and in
Chapter
IEEE 1394b port pin assignment
on page 73). This newer
1394b specification allows a transfer rate of 800 MBit/s with backward com-
patibilities to the slower rates and 6-pin connectors of FireWire 400.
The 1394b capabilities in detail:
•
800 Mbit/s
•
All previous benefits of 1394a (see above)
•
Interoperability with 1394a devices
•
Longer communications distances (up to 500 m using GOF cables)
IIDC V1.31 camera control standards
Twinned with 1394b, the IIDC V1.31 standard arrived in January 2004, evolv-
ing the industry standards for digital imaging communications to include
I/O and RS232 handling, and adding further formats. At such high band-
widths it has become possible to transmit high-resolution images to the PC’s
memory at very high frame rates.