SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 22 2017, @08:34PM (5 children)
I kind of liked Firewire, but it was a huge security risk that I don't think most people realized. Or at least non-technical people. The first time I used it for networking and had a device plugged into one computer pop up for use on the other, I realized just how dangerous the technology was.
Which is a shame, because that very aspect of it made it great for debugging frozen computers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 22 2017, @08:47PM (1 child)
Well that just seems like a driver update was needed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 22 2017, @09:25PM
You're missing the point, if it needs an updated driver, that's still a security problem. It's just that the incident underlined what a security problem the bus was.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday June 22 2017, @11:39PM
I assume you're referring to DMA? Live forensic analysts liked it too, but not necessarily for its speed.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday June 23 2017, @05:40AM
There could been some switch implemented for restricted use?
Ie only allow remote memory access outside of specified memory range if said switch is on.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Friday June 23 2017, @08:17AM
sudo mod me up