Firewire is most often used to connect digital camcorders, external hard drives, and other devices that can benefit from the high transfer rates (up to 480 Mbps) supported by the Firewire connection. What can you connect to a FireWire port?Īlong with USB, Firewire (also called IEEE 1394) is another popular connector for adding peripherals to your computer. This type of connector is commonly found on Apple® computers. The older standard, FireWire 400, is a flatter connector with one rounded side, and the faster 800 version resembles a fat USB connector….ĩ-pin connectors are part of a recent improvement to the IEEE-1394 technology, called FireWire 800 (or IEEE-1394b). They don’t even look remotely alike, which can lead to some confusion. What does a FireWire cable look like?įireWire has two versions, and unlike USB 2.0 and 3.0, they’re not backward compatible. The high speed of data transfer allows for loss-less video transfer from digital camcorders to computers. What is a FireWire card for PC?Ī Firewire card is an add-on card for desktop or laptops pcs that enables communication with firewire-capable devices like hard drives and digital camcorders. In most cases, to find a laptop with an expresscard expansion slot, you’ll need to look at the “Business” class laptops from the major manufacturers. The primary, and for the most part only way to add a supported firewire connection to a laptop is with a firewire expresscard adapter.

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