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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: g_m10 who wrote (10460)	12/8/1997 1:44:00 PM
From: StockMan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

Boris, Re -- USB and firewire... USB in its current form has a max bandwidth of 1.2M. This is a rather slow bus. It is meant to replace the serial and parallel port interfaces and for that the speed of 1.2 suffices. Thus devices such as printers.scanners, phones, fax machines, monitors, speakers, midi devices, joysticks, mice etc. have a common Plug and Play interface to the system. USB supports "hot" insersition (one doesn't have to turn the computer off to plug in the mouse or keyboard or monitor). And the architecture is designed to aviod the desktop clutter (i.e hubs, and the master/slave protocol. i.e a monitor with speakers could be a hub, and the keyboard could plug into the monitor, keeping the computer at a distance). Firewire on the other hand is meant for high bandwidth data. It currently supports 100 Mb . Typically video data to the TV, and DVD drives and camcorders etc.. require this high bandwidth. Its also plug and play and supports hot insertion. However due to its high data rates, it is limited in distance (The computer as to be within 4ft of the TV). Firewire bus is also used by Adaptec and others as the next generation "SCSI". Sony uses firewire in some of its newer camcorders and TV sets.. Computer standards are still being set. Intel is playing a role in this. Firewire will appear ubiquitously sometime in 1999,2000 etc.. A pure play on USB is non-existant. (the USB chips will be embedded in most of the peripheral devices). It is a commodity product. Firewire, will also become a commodity product, when it comes out. However Adaptec is one company you could buy into as they are on the bleeding edge of this. Stockman