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posted by CoolHand on Thursday June 22 2017, @06:37PM   Printer-friendly
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.


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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by LoRdTAW on Thursday June 22 2017, @08:06PM (2 children)

    by LoRdTAW (3755) on Thursday June 22 2017, @08:06PM (#529640) Journal

    There was an article I read a while back from one of the original 1394 engineers. One thing that he talked about was the design of the connector. The retention tabs were on the cable plug, not in the socket like USB. Whereas the USB team bungled the design and put the tabs in the USB socket housing. This means that over time as the tabs wear out, the socket couldn't properly retain a USB plug. Now that usb socket is mechanically damaged. Good luck replacing it. The 1394 plug has the tabs which means that if the plug wears and gets loose, you replace the cable, not the motherboard.

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  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday June 23 2017, @05:30AM

    by kaszz (4211) on Friday June 23 2017, @05:30AM (#529852) Journal

    This means that over time as the tabs wear out

    Great! planned obsolescence. Go-buy-new.

    It may simple be a intended "feature"..

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by mojo chan on Friday June 23 2017, @07:35AM

    by mojo chan (266) on Friday June 23 2017, @07:35AM (#529888)

    That's now how USB sockets work. The metal shield that provides retention is designed to be stronger than the cable, so that the cable is the part that wears out. In fact, with decades of data we have found that it's the plastic part that holds the contacts which tends to wear out with repeated use, not the metal housing and tabs.

    USB-C fixes all of that. Apple went with a simpler design but with the flaw that the contacts are used to guide the cable in when being inserted, wearing them. USB-C has the robust metal housing for guiding and retention.

    --
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