The FireWire™ port
FireWire™ is a serial PC interface similar to USB that was developed by Apple in 1995,
and which was originally intended for digital video data and for external mass storage and
audio devices. It has since been given many names that all refer to the same port: for
example, Sony calls FireWire™ “i.LINK™”, Texas Instruments refers to it as “Lynx™”, and
one also frequently sees the mysterious abbreviation “1394”. The latter designation
actually refers to the common IEEE 1394 standard, which is notable for its high data rates
(IEEE 1394a = 400 Mbps and IEEE 1394b = 800, 1600 and 3200 Mbps). (For those of
you who are sticklers for detail, IEEE stands for the US “Institute of Electrical and
Electronic Engineers”.)
Like USB, FireWire™ also supports hot plugging—in other words, you do not need to shut
down your computer to add or remove devices. However, you should take care not to
interrupt any applications that may be accessing the PHASE 24 FW to prevent possible
data losses or blue screens. Also please note that it may take the operating system a
while to process the new situation—after all, machines are only human :-)
One standard—two sockets
The socket on your PC can have two different forms, with either 4 or 6 conductors.
According to the standard, in the 6-pin version the two extra pins are used to supply 7.5 –
30V / 1.5A per port. Unfortunately, this is often not the case due to the poor quality of
some controllers that are unable to provide a constant operating voltage—despite the
requirements of the specification. So if you'd like to avoid any unexpected failures of the
PHASE 24 FW, please use the included AC adapter—better safe than sorry. If your
computer “only” has a 4-pin port, you must use the AC adapter. To connect the sound
module to your PC in this case, please use the included adapter (6-pin to 4-pin).
Two sockets—continued
Unlike USB, FireWire™ is a bus system. In other words, every FireWire™ device has a
full-featured port for further equipment, so that individual devices can also be connected in
series. OK, it's currently only possible to link 64 devices in practice, but who has that
many peripherals? Hubs—like those used by USB devices—are therefore superfluous as
long as the cable length between the individual devices does not exceed 4.5 meters or a
total of 72 meters, as this would cause problems due to signal attenuation. The connected
devices will still work with one of the intermediate devices switched off—the rest will still
communicate via the ports. Please ensure that you don't create a loop—at some point you
must have a final device without a further connection.
The PHASE 24 FW also has two connections for this reason. Which of the two ports you
use to connect it to your computer is up to you—the sockets are identical.
Be careful nevertheless, there are a number of potential stumbling blocks. The values
listed above are theoretical. Most camcorders, for example, do not comply with IEEE 1394
and transmit their data without consideration of standards or potential losses. You should
also consider that a complex audio production may use the full bus width (400 Mbps in
theory, but it may be considerably lower in practice). Should you have problems with
additional FireWire™ devices connected to the PHASE 24 FW, please connect them to a
different controller port.
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PHASE 24 FW (English)