Q: Comparison chart for USB / Firewire / Thunderbird (2) port specs?
I am looking for a single chart that shows the connector specs: port power, data transfer rates, distance. I have a mix of FW 400, 800, Thunderbird, USB 2, 3 (?)
I will be buying some peripherals (storage, connectors, new display) and I want to buy smart.
Anything you can refer me to? Wikipedia and site search was lacking.
MacBook Air, 13", mid-2011 (OS 10.7.5)
MacBook Pro, 13", mid-2010 (OS 10.8.5)
MacMini 5,1 mid-2011 with 20-inch Apple Cinema Display, A1081 (OS 10.8.5)
Thanks,
N
MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.5)
Posted on Jan 2, 2015 12:27 PM
I found this white paper Driving 4K Workflows with Thunderbolt™ 2 . It describes bandwidth standards / limits.
With a little sleuthing on public and Apple sites, I created the following table for rough comparison.
- USB 2.0 = 12 Mbps
- Firewire 400 = 400 Mbps
- Hi-speed USB 2.0 = 480 Mbps
- Firewire 800 = 800 Mbps (can support display)
- eSATA = 3 Gbps
- USB 3.0 = 5 Gbps
- Thunderbolt = 10 Gbps (can support display, daisy chaining, introduced on 2011 Macs)
- Thunderbolt 2 = 20 Gbps (can support display, daisy chaining, introduced on 2013 Macs)
Thanks for getting me moving in the right direction !
Posted on Jan 4, 2015 11:36 AM