[plug] Ext USB2 HD adapter vs Ext IEEE 1394

[Craig Ringer]

On Mon, 2004-02-23 at 19:47, Ben Jensz wrote:
> Technically speaking, USB2.0 should be faster than firewire.

Hmm... AFAIK USB2 has a /burst/ speed, under lab conditions, of 480Mb/s.
I'd say that "in marketing-land, if we stretch the truth a bit, we could
call USB 2 480Mb/s."

Even usb.org won't actually claim it /really/ performs at 480Mb/s:

A1: High speed USB products have a design data rate of 480 Mb/s.
                                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


Everything I've heard and basically all reviews etc seem to indicate
that FireWire/IEEE1394 is /significantly/ faster, and has much lower CPU
overheads. FireWire is rather a lot closer to 400Mb/s (or 800...) than
USB2 is to 480Mb/s.

Of course, I don't know how good Linux FireWire support is, so overall
USB2 might be the better choice.

Craig Ringer