Fire wire - # and number of pins?

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Level 1

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Fire wire - # and number of pins?

I want to add an external drive to my mac mini (non intel), and I plan to do this with a fire wire connection. I have found that fire wire cables are defined by the number of pins (4 or 6) an number IEEE-1396 or 1394. I believe I need to buy a cable, IEEE-1394 with 6 pins on each end. Can anyone confirm this belief before I buy the cable.
Thank you for your comments.

Mac mini (not intel), Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Dec 14, 2008 7:10 PM

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Answer 1

Fortuny

Level 7

21,461 points

Dec 14, 2008 9:10 PM in response to ri531

Hi TGH1,

Firewire was and is IEEE1394 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewire

A 6-pin Firewire cable is used for connecting external harddisks to a computer when using FW400.
For FW800 the cable and the computer has to have a 9-pin connection.

Regards

Stefan

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Answer 2

ri531 Author

Level 1

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Dec 15, 2008 6:49 AM in response to Fortuny

Stefan: Thank you for the firewire information. Can you tell me the difference between IEEE-1396 and IEEE-1394 on a six pin connection?

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Answer 3

Fortuny

Level 7

21,461 points

Dec 15, 2008 7:49 PM in response to ri531

Hi,

I admit I have never heard of IEEE 1396 before you posted it here.
However a quick googling came up with quite some hits.

To my knowledge (and from the Google hits) it seems that IEEE 1396 is used to determine a 6-pin to 6-pin cable connection, whereas IEEE 1394 is used for a 6-pin to 4-pin cable connection.

4-pin ports are usually only used with external devices, that don't need/want to draw power from the Firewire cable (like Digital cameras and the like) or computers (like Notebooks) that don't provide power over the Firewire cable.

Nonetheless the only 'official' name for Firewire of any kind is IEEE 1394 with the addition of small letters like 'a' 'b' or 'c' to distinguish the differences in speed (Firewire 400; Firewire 800).

So look at the Firewire ports you want to connect with the cable to determine which cable you need.

Take care and thanks for the star.

Stefan

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