Whats the difference between a Firewire 400 port and an 800?

[Double Tones]

Whats the difference between a Firewire 400 port and an 800 port?
Specifically, if I want to run an external hard drive off of one and an 002 in another?

The new Imac has 2 400's whereas the powerbook has 1 400 and 1 800.

Thanks.

[marc]

I can't seem to find a reference to whether the 002 uses 400 or 800 (actually, I found some reference to the 002 using 400, but that was dated 2003). Basically, 400 and 800 ports just run at different speeds. Even with only one 800, you can daisy chain Firewire devices, so if both devices are 800, you could easily run them both off of 800 port. From what I understand though, plugging one 400 device into a chain on an 800 port will force everything down to 400 speed.

In my personal opinion, there are lots of other differences between Powerbooks and iBooks (i.e. if I'm using a device that's actually saturating a FW400 channel, is the rest of the system actually able to keep up), and I don't think I'd buy either one based solely off of one 800 port.

[earth tones]

Firewire 400 (IEEE 1394a) uses a 6pin port and transmits up to 400 Mbps, while Firewire 800 (IEEE 1394b) uses a 9-pin port and transmits up to 800Mbps. The two cables utilize different port types, however converters are available. My 002 has FW400 ports, and I am assuming that they are still shipping with them. FW 800 is backwards compatible to 400, but it does limit speed down to a max of 400Mbps.

[joel hamilton]

keep in mind that both of the rated throughput speeds are theoretical. Neither make it to 400 or 800.
Search Firewire at the apple site for more info.

[Ethan Holdtrue]

cant one send automation commands to a device... or am I thinking of 4 and 6 pin firewire?

[marc]

As far as I'm aware, the extra 2 pins on a 6 pin Firewire cable are just for power, so I'm guessing you're right.

[getak]

The 002 is firewire 400 as the only firewire 800 interface on the market is the rme fireface 800. http://www.rme-audio.com/english/firewire/ff800.htm

I?ve heard good things about using firewire 800 drives. Noticeably much faster, supposedly.