Twenty-five cents won't buy you a decent cup of coffee, but it will cover the license fee for putting an IEEE 1394 connection in a digital device. That's a good deal. The high-speed serial connection of IEEE 1394a carries up to 400M bps; the forthcoming 1394b will deliver 3,200M bps over either a 4.5-meter cable or a 100-meter optical-fiber connection. Unlike Universal Serial Bus, with its high dependence on the central processing unit, IEEE 1394 is a peer-to-peer bus for up to 63 intelligent devices. And the chip set adds only $5 to the cost of a piece of gear.
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