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from the collaboration-what-collaboration? dept.
The rise and fall of FireWire—IEEE 1394, an interface standard boasting high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer—is one of the most tragic tales in the history of computer technology. The standard was forged in the fires of collaboration. A joint effort from several competitors including Apple, IBM, and Sony, it was a triumph of design for the greater good. FireWire represented a unified standard across the whole industry, one serial bus to rule them all. Realized to the fullest, FireWire could replace SCSI and the unwieldy mess of ports and cables at the back of a desktop computer.
Yet FireWire's principal creator, Apple, nearly killed it before it could appear in a single device. And eventually the Cupertino company effectively did kill FireWire, just as it seemed poised to dominate the industry.
The story of how FireWire came to market and ultimately fell out of favor serves today as a fine reminder that no technology, however promising, well-engineered, or well-liked, is immune to inter- and intra-company politics or to our reluctance to step outside our comfort zone.
(Score: 5, Informative) by jmorris on Thursday June 22 2017, @07:18PM (10 children)
There was another reason for FireWire's sudden demise. When somebody realized the downside of a multi-master system that can invoke DMA, every corporate and government entity banned any hardware with a firewire port from being considered for purchase. Now of course we have IOMMU tech that could safely contain the security problems but it is far too late.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 22 2017, @08:07PM (1 child)
Of course, that's also the reason it was the preferred debug connection for Windows kernel debugging until Microsoft finally killed it a few months ago. None of the other transports perform nearly as well, though I'm honestly surprised it was supported for as long as it was.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday June 22 2017, @08:25PM
Linux kernel had a similar setup.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by LoRdTAW on Thursday June 22 2017, @08:22PM (3 children)
[Citation Needed]
That was not the issue. The issue was Apple asking for per-port royalties and dumb ass industry partners using different names. Sony called it i.LINK, Texas Instruments called it LYNX and Apple used FireWire while a bunch of others kept calling it 1394. And to top it off, it was a two chip solution for a while with separate PHY's and controllers because of the per port fuckery.
Bottom line: It was a great bus but Apple goofed up big time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 22 2017, @08:37PM (1 child)
Sony's version was pretty much only the inferior 4 pin variety as I recall. I had a laptop back then that had a port included and it was just the 4 pin type. Which was kind of annoying.
But yeah, having it named as Firewire and IEEE1394 as the most common names probably didn't help. But, it's kind of a moot point as it was a massive security problem due to it being wired directly into the system RAM. A great thing if you're a developer trying to figure out why the computer has completely frozen, but a huge security problem for everybody else.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday June 22 2017, @11:13PM
It was pretty much an actual hardware bus. So like PCI, it could allow devices to bus master so to speak and initiate DMA transfers. That right there was the security problem. But That wasn't much of an issue at first. It was years after release. The big problem that never allowed it to pick up steam was Apples stupidity and per port royalties. At that point why would anyone want to pay for a port that no one was using because it was so new. It just never got the traction it needed, regardless of what security problems there were.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 22 2017, @09:33PM
The cost is the reason FireWire wasn't used for more consumer devices, resulting in peripherals avoiding it because they wanted people to be able to just plug their stuff in without also buying an expansion card. Corporate/government environments are different; they probably wouldn't have cared one way or another.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday June 22 2017, @10:19PM (1 child)
I vaguely remember it was called FireLog but I can't find it with Google.
You need two Macs. One of them runs the hack, the other is a stock Macintosh with no special software installed.
Connect them with a FireWrite cable and that stock Mac displays a fireplace with a log burning in it.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday June 23 2017, @11:14AM
Could it have been the "firestarter firewire hack" aka "Inception"?
http://www.breaknenter.org/projects/inception/ [breaknenter.org]
Really clever coding...
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Friday June 23 2017, @08:30AM (1 child)
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday June 23 2017, @04:05PM
Make it so that the operator must approve the use of the feature. It could be as simply as the BIOS enabling/disabling the feature.